
Book /' A^^ 

Copyright }1° 



COFYRICHT DEPOSIT. 




Queen Elizabeth 

Behind her is busy, prosperous England with its encircling sea and its flying 

ships 



OUR ANCESTORS 
IN EUROPE 

AN INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN HISTORY 



BY 

JENNIE HALL 

FRANCIS W. PARKER SCHOOL, CHICAGO 




EDITED BY 

J. MONTGOMERY GAMBRILL 

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, TEACHERS COLLEGE 
COLUMBIA UNIVEBSITY 



LIDA LEE TALL 

BUPEKVISOB OF ORAMMAK GRADES, PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
BALTIMORE COUNTV, MD. 



SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 



J]|63 

.Ka4 



Copyright, 1916, 
By silver, BURDETT AND COMPANY 



M -7 1916 



r 



9CI.A431410 



INTRODUCTION 

It is still generally admitted that the most important his- 
tory for every child is that of his own country, but happily 
the old narrow conception of the American story as a thing 
apart from the rest of the world seems to be rapidly passing. 
The roots of American civilization are in Europe. Our be- 
ginnings and early development form a part of one of the 
most far-reaching changes of history : the expansion of Eu- 
rope beyond the ancient limits of the Mediterranean world, 
the discovery of the American continents, the opening of 
direct sea routes to India and the far East, the commercial 
revolution, the first stages of the Europeanization of the 
world. Only in this larger setting can the history of the 
United States become really intelligible. If we are to under- 
stand our own country and how it came to be what it is, we 
must know something of the story of our ancestors in Europe 
and of the heritage we have received from them. 

It was to serve the purpose of such an introduction to 
American history that the present volume was planned. The 
general field and larger topics have been chosen to meet the 
requirements for the sixth grade prescribed by the Com- 
mittee of Eight of the American Historical Association, while 
that freedom in the choice and treatment of details which 
the Committee itself so wisely urges, has been exercised. 
The book may also serve its purpose apart from the Com- 
mittee's course in any of the grammar grades or early years 
of the "junior high school." 

Among the original proposals of the editors were the fol- 
lowing : a special effort to combine historical accuracy with 
attractive style and adaptation to the understanding of chil- 
dren ; concreteness of treatment with adequate detail for clear 



vi INTRODUCTION 

visualization and the consequent sense of reality ; vivid char- 
acterization of persons ; the type-study idea ; careful atten- 
tion to the inter-relations of events and the concept of change 
in institutions and ways of living. As one important aid in 
realizing these aims it was suggested that the children be al- 
lowed to make the acquaintance of some of the most interest- 
ing contemporary writers. The words of Herodotus and 
Csesar, of Einhard and Roger of Wendover, of Chaucer and 
Piers the Plowman, of Columbus and Hakluyt, have a unique 
interest and a value that no effort of the modern writer can 
replace. Such material Miss Hall has succeeded with remark- 
able skill in weaving smoothly into her story. Moreover, 
these old writings, the pictures drawn by people of ancient 
and medieval times, and the photographs of material remains, 
supply within the covers of this volume ready means for pre- 
senting simply and naturally the idea of evidence and of how 
historical knowledge is obtained. 

Author and editors agree in dissenting strongly from the 
theory that the way to be simple is to be brief. Probably 
the chief vice of history textbooks has been the tendency to 
epitomize, to indulge in sweeping generalizations, to mislead 
through over-compactness. This book is accordingly some- 
what longer than is usual, but in no sense heavier ; on the 
contrary, it is more interesting and easier to study because 
the topics are limited in number, and sufficient space has been 
allowed to treat them clearly and vividly. 

Miss Hall has given to her task not only several years of 
painstaking labor and the consideration of much searching 
criticism, but her rare skill as a teacher of children, her un- 
usual gifts as a teller of stories, and the experience of travel 
in Greece and Italy. She has produced a book of distinctive 
character, one which children will read with pleasure as well 
as with profit and teachers will welcome as a contribution to 
the study of history in the grades. 

J. MONTGOMERY GAMBRILL 



TO TEACHERS 

" Have we always been what we are ? " " Why are we so 
like Europeans and unlike Chinamen ? " " Men and animals 
grow ; does civilization grow ? " " Before America what was 
there ? " Thoughtful children ask themselves such ques- 
tions. Less thoughtful ones ought to be led to ask them. 
The inquiring attitude of mind, the question formed on the 
lips or in the brain, are the necessary preludes to right study. 
The moment when such a question is voiced is the psycho- 
logical moment for opening this book. As the children con- 
tinue to read, this initial question should pass through 
Protean changes and should become at every stage more 
definite. " What have we learned from the Greeks ? " 
" How did men learn more about the earth than they knew 
at first?" 

Under purposeful teaching, teaching that trains intelli- 
gence rather than crams with facts, such questions will be 
continually forming. Along beside them will come a host 
of little ones: "How long was a knight's spear?" "-Did 
the Greeks kneel when they prayed ? " " How large was 
Columbus' ship ? " These are honest and intelligent ques- 
tions, questions well worthy of answers. They show a mind 
active and eager for accuracy, for definiteness. Children 
hunger for details. They reason inductively. It is the 
vivid image that stirs them to make a generalization. I 
never saw a generalization stir them to anything but revolt. 

This book tries to rouse these larger questions and the 
smaller ones, and it tries to give material for answering 
them. But it needs the help of an inspiring teacher to com- 
plete it. She must make the recitation a discussion, not a 
quiz. She must in scores of ways stimulate questioning and 
vivid imaging. She must alternate hard, close thinking 



viii TO TEACHERS 

with gratification of the play instinct. She must see to it 
that children's hunger to express is satisfied. She must 
have supplementary material for investigating minds. 

The thing that quickens and invigorates nature study is 
the fact that it makes absolutely necessary the use of real 
materials to be studied. The danger for history lies in the 
fact that most of its material is only a reflection preserved 
in books. We must search diligently for the real material, 
the substance of the reflection. The men we are reading 
about did things, said things, made things. Their deeds are 
gone, though hosts of books give us accounts of them. Can 
we hear any of the things they said, that we may judge the 
speakers ? Their voices are dead, but their- writings yet 
exist. Let us study them. Can we see any of the things 
they made ? Fortunate the class whose teacher or members 
have traveled and seen the temples and castles of Europe. 
Fortunate the school in a city with a good museum, having 
armor, tapestry, lutes, illuminated manuscripts, models of 
old buildings. Lacking these good things, we still have the 
multiplicity of pictures with which our press supplies us. I 
hope, then, that this book will be a center about which will 
accumulate a little library especially of sources, a mass of 
mounted pictures, a small collection of illustrative models. 

The making of those models will be a thing to save the 
souls of some hand-minded children, and the acquaintance 
with them will vivify and vitalize everybody's thinking. A 
Greek lyre, a Greek scroll, a Roman house, a catapult, a bat- 
tering ram, a knight's shield, a castle, an illuminated page, 
a Viking boat, a tapestry frame, an astrolabe, a series of 
sketches illustrating a page's life — let us substitute these 
for description and dissertation. Let us in all ways possible 
give our classes a chance to make their own observations and 
to build their own generalizations. 

I hope that after reading this book children will say : 
"What happened next? We are different in some things 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS k 

from the people of 1600 : how did these changes come 
about ? " Children of twelve are not too young, I think, to 
begin to see human history as a series of changes, a series, 
too, without end. The point may take in their minds some such 
crude form as this : " When my father was a boy some things 
were different from what they are now. What things will 
be different when I am an old man from what they are now? " 
For a teacher to arouse this question would be a great accom- 
plishment. To bring it about, the children's eyes must be 
turned from books to look questioningly upon the society 
about them, to see it as an elastic and flexible thing that is 
the outcome of great changes during the past and is inevi- 
tably destined to numberless changes in the future. 

JENNIE HALL 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

The writer has had the benefit of much assistance. Pro- 
fessor W.S. Ferguson of Harvard University has criticised the 
chapters dealing with the ancient world, and Professor George 
C. Sellery of the University of Wisconsin those on the Middle 
Ages. To Miss Lida Lee Tall, supervisor in the Baltimore 
County public schools, I am indebted for suggestions such 
as only a thoughtful, inspired teacher can give. Mrs, 
Eunice Fuller Barnard I gratefully acknowledge as the col- 
lector of the illustrations and as the painstaking editor of 
the entire book. Yet it is a pleasure to pay my largest debt 
of thanks to Mr. J. M. Gambrill of Teachers College, Co- 
lumbia University. Not only has he performed most of the 
arduous labor necessary on the maps, but he has been the 
severe and stimulating critic of the whole manuscript. Upon 
none of these kind critics may I lay the responsibility for 
any of the faults of the book, but I send it out with more 
assurance because of their assistance. 

J. H. 



CONTENTS 
PART I. THE ANCIENT WORLD 

HAPTER PAGE 

I. Greece, the Explorer and Teacher . . . . i 

The World before Our Time i 

Early Greek Exploration 3 

Ancient Peoples of the Mediterranean . . . .11 

Colonization 13 

II. What Greece Had to Teach the World ... 20 

Religion 20 

Art 21 

The Olympic Games 29 

Greek Cities 34 

Athens 38 

Education 45 

Government 51 

III. Greece and Her Neighbors 53 

The Persian War 53 

The Delian Confederacy . • 59 

Macedon Conquers the World 62 

Greek Influence on Civilization 70 

IV. Rome Grows Strong 74 

Rome Conquers Italy 74 

Roman Life . . . T] 

V. Rome Conquers the World 90 

How Rome Conquered Carthage 90 

Rome's Conquest of the East 96 

Caesar's War in Gaul 99 

Conquest Changes the Romans no 

VI. The Roman Empire 117 

How Rome Ruled the World 117 

A New Religion in the Ancient World . . . .128 

Results of Roman Rule . 135 

xi 



XU CONTENTS 

PART II. THE NEWER NATIONS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

VII. The Barbarian Conquerors 140 

The Germans 141 

The Conquests of the Goths 144 

The Franks 148 

Charlemagne's Empire . 151 

The Vikings . . . 157 

VIII. How Germany and France Began .... 161 

Charlemagne's Empire Divided 161 

Germany 163 

France . . . , 173 

IX. How England Began 181 

The Angles and Saxons Take Britain . . . .181 

The Reign of King Alfred 187 

The Norman Conquest 192 

The Good Laws of Henry II 200 

King John and the Great Charter 205 

X. Castle Life 213 

Feudalism, or How Men Got Land . . . .214 

The Castle 217 

A Siege 224 

The Warlike Spirit of the Age 228 

Knightly Ideals and Training 232 

Knightly Pleasures 239 

The Time of Chivalry 247 

XI. The Workers 249 

Farmers 249 

Townsmen 263 

Traders 277 

XII. Religion in the Middle Ages 296 

Christian Missionaries 296 

Church Organization 298 

Monasteries 3°° 

Saints and Pilgrimages 316 

Mohammedanism, the New Religion in Asia . . 322 

The Crusades 329 



CONTENTS 



Xlll 



PART III. BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

CHATTKB 

XIII. Great Changes .... 



National States 

How the World Began to Read 

A Change in Religion 

XIV. Ships in Strange Seas 

Early Sailors and Their Ways 
Wanted : A New Route to India 
Portugal's Great Explorers 
Spanish Ships in a New World 
Rival Explorers 
The Results of a Century's Work 

XV. Spain and Her Rivals 
Spaniards in America 
Spain and Her Enemies 
Spain and Her Enemies 
Spain and Her Enemies : 3 
England in America 
Eneland's Rivals in the New World 



1. France 

2. The Nethe 
England 



Important Dates 
Index 



rlands 



PAGE 

334 
334 
336 
337 

341 

341 
346 

349 
360 
368 
377 

379 
379 
385 
388 

393 

408 
412 

417 
423 



LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS 



PAGE 



Greece about 500 b.c 7 

Map Showing Greek Colonization ..... 15 

Athens and the Bay of Salamis ..... 45 

The Persian Empire about 490 b.c. ..... 54 

Alexander's Empire ........ 64 

Italy in Relief ......... 75 

Rome and Her Hills ........ 76 

Rome and Carthage at the Beginning of the Second Punic 

War 93 

Rome and Carthage at the End of the Second Punic War 95 

A Roman Camp ......... 108 

Modern Countries Included in Roman Empire at Its 

Greatest Extent . . . . . . . .116 

Part of a Roman Map of the World. From a map of the 

4th century. (Reproduced in Synge, A Book of Discovery) . 123 

Trading Districts of the Ancient World .... 126 

The Germanic Kingdoms ....... 149 

Empire of Charlemagne and Its Divisions . . . 162 
Europe about the Close of the Twelfth Century 

Between pp. 212 and 213 

A Castle. (After Viollet-le-duc, Annals of a Fortress) . . 218 

Plan of a Manor ......... 251 

Trade Routes in the Middle Ages .... 282-283 

Ninth-century Plan of a Monastery (St. Gall, Switzerland) 315 
Europe about the Middle of the Sixteenth Century 

Between pp. 334 arid 335 
A Map of the World Made in Alexandria about 150 a.d. 

Ptolemy's map. (From Fiske, Discovery of America)* . 341 
A Sailor's Map op Europe and Africa, Made in 1351. 

From the Laurentian Portolano ...... 343 

Exploration Moves bowN the African Coast. (From Fiske, 

Discovery of America) * ....... 356 

Western Africa. From Martin Behaim's globe, 1492. (Re- 
produced in Synge, A Book of Discovery) .... 357 

The World as Europeans Knew It before 1492 . . 360 
Part of a Globe Made in 1492, just before Columbus 

Sailed. From Behaim's globe. (From Fiske, Discovery of 

America) *.......... 362 

Part of a Globe Made in 1531. From the globe of Orontius 

Finaeus. (From F'iske, Discovery of America) * . . . 370 

The Great Discoveries, 1486 to 1600 ..... 376 

* By courtesy of Houghton Miffliu Company. 

xiv 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



In order that they may give accurate evidence of the life of other times, the 
illustrations in this book are taken, with few exceptions, from material contem- 
porary with the periods described. Vase-paintings, statues, buildings, mosaics, 
illuminations from old manuscripts, early wood-cuts and engravings have all 
been drawn upon. This list gives the source in each instance, usually citing 
also the name of a modern work where the illustration in question and others of 
the same period may be found reproduced. For volumes referred to more than 
three times the following abbreviations have been used : 

Baumeister = Baumeister, A., Denkmaler des Massischen Altertums, Munich, 

1887. 
Cults = Cutts, E. L., Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, London, 1872. 
Gardiner = Gardiner, S. R., Students' History of England, 1904. 
Lacroix = Lacroix, Paul, Manners, Customs and Dress during the Middle Ages, 

London, 1876. 
Lacroix et Sere = Lacroix et S6re, Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance, Paris. 
Rawlinson = Rawlinson, George, The Seven Great Monarchies of the Ancient 

Eastern World, 1884. 
Stothard = Stothard, C. A., The Tapestry of Bayeux, London, 1827. 
Synge = Synge, M. B., A Book of Discovery, London, 1912. 
Viollet-le-duc = Viollet-le-duc, Dictionnaire raisonne du niohilier frangais, Paris, 

1875. 



Queen Elizabeth. From an engraving published in 1596. Frontispiece 
Assyrian King Hunting. From a relief at Koyunjik. (Rawlin- 
son) ........... 2 

Assyrian Lion Hunt. From a relief at Nimrud. (Reproduced 

in habysbrd, Monuments of Nineveh) ..... 3 

The Monster Scylla. From an Etruscan urn. (Baumeister) 5 

The Acropolis of Corinth ....... 9 

A Greek Ship. From a Greek vase-painting. (Reproduced 

in Chatterton, Ships and Ways of Other Days) ... 10 
Zeus, Here, Poseidon, Demeter. From a Greek vase. (Bau- 
meister) .......... 20 

The Parthenon in Ruins ....... 22 

Greek Horsemen. From a photograph of the Parthenon frieze 24 

Venus of Melos. From the statue in the Louvre, Paris . . 27 
Hermes of Praxiteles. From the statue in the museum at 

Olympia .......... 28 

Temple of Zeus at Olympia. (Baumeister) . . . .31 

XV 



xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Harnessing a Chariot. From a Greek vase. (Baumeister) . 33 
Three Greeks. From the relief of Orpheus, Eurydice and 

Hermes in the Villa Albani, Rome ..... 35 

A Greek Potter at Work. From a Greek vase. {Baumeister) 37 

The Acropolis of Athens ....... 39 

A Greek Lady and Her Slave. From a grave relief in the Na- 
tional Museum, Athens ....... 41 

A Greek School. From a Greek vase. (Baumeister) 46 and 47 

Socrates. From the bust in the National Museum, Naples . 48 

Persian Soldiers. From a relief at Persepolis. (Rawlinson) . 53 

A Persian King. From a Greek vase. (Baumeister) . . 55 

Persian Foot-soldier. From a relief at Persepolis. (Rawlinson) 56 

Noble Persian Guard. From a relief at Persepolis. (Rawlinson) 57 
Soldier of Marathon. From a grave relief in the National 

Museum, Athens . . . . . . . .58 

Darius, the Persian King, in his War Chariot. From a mo- 
saic at Pompeii. (Baumeister) ...... 66 

The Harvard University Stadium 71 

A Court in a Roman House. At Pompeii .... 78 
Romans Going to Make Sacrifice. From reliefs in the Uffizi 

Gallery, Florence ....... 80 and 81 

A Roman Woman Sacrificing. From a statue in the National 

Museum, Naples ......... 83 

A Roman Sacrifice before a Temple. From a relief in the 

Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome ...... 85 

A Trireme. (Baumeister) ........ 91 

The Dying Gauu From the statue in the Capitoline Museum, 

Rome 100 

A Movable Tower. (A modern drawing in Viollet-le-duc, 

Annals of a Fortress) ........ 102 

Storming a Town. A modern drawing 104 

A Roman War Scene. A detail from Trajan's column, Rome. 

(Baumeister) ......... 106 

A Triumphal Arch. A drawing of the Arch of Titus, Rome. 

(Baumeister) . . . . . . . . .112 

The Cold Plunge IN A Roman Bath-house. (Viollet-le-duc) . 119 
Wax Tablet, Inkhorn, Scroll or Book. (Real Museo Bor- 

bonico, 1824) 122 

A Statue of the Emperor Constantine. At Barletta, Italy . 134 

A Frankish Barbarian of Early Times. (Lacroix) . . 142 

A German Warrior. (Lacroix) ...... 143 

Clovis. From a statue on his tomb formerly in the Abbey of 

St. Genevieve. (Lacroix) ....... 150 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii 



Pope Crowning Charlemagne. From a 14th century manu- 
script. {Lacroix) ......... 152 

Charlemagne. From a miniature at the University of Paris. 

(Lacroix) .......... 155 

Viking Ship. From the reconstruction of Professor Montelius. 

(Synge) 158 

Holy Roman EiiiPEROR. From a 12th century manuscript. 

(Synge) 161 

The Pope on His Throne. From a 15th century manuscript. 

(Cults) 165 

The Greatness of the Emperor. From a 9th century manu- 
script. (Lacroix) ........ 167 

A Caravan in the East. From a 14th century map. (Synge) 170 
A King of the Franks on His Carved Chair. From a 10th 

century manuscript. (Viollet-le-duc) ..... 175 

St. Louis. From a 13th century manuscript. (Lacroix et Sere) 178 
A Saxon Warrior. From a print in the British Museum. 

(Cutts) 182 

Saxon Horsemen. From the British Museum. (Gardiner) . 184 
The House of Parliament in England To-day . . . 186 
Norman Ship. From the Bayeux Tapestry. (Stothard) . . 193 
Saxon Foot-soldiers and Norman Horsemen. From the 

Bayeux Tapestry. (Stothard) ...... 194 

Death of King Harold. From the Bayeux Tapestry. (Stothard) 195 
Norman Horsemen. From the Bayeux Tapestry. (Stothard) 196 
King William's Ship. From the Bayeux Tapestry. (Stothard) 198 
A Norman Banquet. From the Bayeux Tapestry. (Stothard) 200 
Pilgrims Leaving a Town. From a manuscript in the British 

Museum. (Cutts) 202 

Paying Toll on a Bridge. From a painted window at Tournay. 

(Cutts) . . . 203 

King John. From a manuscript in the British Museum. (Re- 
produced in Fairholt, Costume in England) .... 206 
The Castle of an English Baron. A modern drawing . . 207 
An English Merchant in Rich Clothes. "Chaucer's mer- 
chant" from the EUesmere manuscript. (Reproduced in 
Jusserand, English Wayfaring Life) . . . . .211 
Beginning of a Tournament. From a manuscript in the 

British Museum. (Cutts) 213 

A Vassal Swearing Fealty. From a 14th century manuscript. 

(Lacroix) .......... 215 

A Sally across a Drawbridge. From a 14th century manu- 
script. (Cutts) 220 



xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAOB 

A King Giving Orders to His Builder. From a manuscript in 

the British Museum. (Gardiner) ..... 223 

Besieging a Tower. From a manuscript in the British Museum. 

(Cutis) 225 

Battering Ram. From a 15th century manuscript. (Cutis) . 226 
A Tournament. From a 14th century manuscript. (Cutts) . 229 
A Knight of the Thirteenth Century. From a manuscript in 

the British Museum. (Cults) 231 

Crossbowman. From a manuscript in the British Museum. 

(Cidts) 234 

A Tournament of Froissart's Time. From a 15th century 

manuscript. (Cutts) ........ 237 

The Knighting. From a 13th century manuscript. (Lacroix et 

Sere) 238 

A Gentleman Hawking. From the Loutterell Psalter. (Gar- 
diner) 240 

The King Dines. From an early 14th century manuscript. (Cutts) 243 
A Lady. From a statue in Chartres Cathedral. (Reproduced in 

Gautier, La Chevalerie) ....... 245 

A Royal Harper. From an early 14th century manuscript. 

(Cutts) 246 

A Knight. From a manuscript in the British Museum. (Cutts) 248 
The Ox-plow. (This and the following illustrations of farm 

activities from the Loutterell Psalter. (Gardiner) . . 250 
Cutting Grain .......... 252 

Stacking the Sheaves ........ 252 

Hauling the Cart-load Uphill. (Reproduced in Jusserand, 

English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages) .... 254 

Harrowing .......... 255 

Threshing With Flails ........ 259 

John Ball. From a 15th century manuscript of Froissart's 

Chronicles. (Cutts) 261 

Medieval Shops. (Lacroix et Sere) ...... 264 

A Goldsmith's Shop. From a manuscript in the British Museum. 

(Cutts) 266 

An Old View of Florence. From a wood-cut in a Florentine 

manuscript dated 1495. (Reproduced in Staley, The Guilds 

of Florence, London, 1906) 269 

A Corner of a Market in Florence. From a wood-cut in a 

Florentine manuscript dated 1495. (Reproduced in Staley, 

The Guilds of Florence) 270 

A. Street Corner in Florence. From the painting of St. 

Stephen preaching, by Fra Angelico ..... 272 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xix 

PAGE 

The Bronze Doors of the Baptistry. In Florence . . 274 

The Bell Tower. In Florence ....... 275 

The Arms of the Apothecaries and Physicians. From the 

plaque by Luca della Robbia ...... 276 

Landing at a Seaport. From a manuscript in the British 

Museum. (Cutts) 279 

Merchant Ships Carrying Soldiers. From a 15th century 

manuscript of Froissart's Chronicles. (Cutts) . . . 280 

Traders Landing at an Eastern Town. From the Livre des 

Merveilles, 14th century. (Synge) ..... 286 

A Fair. From a painted window at Tournay. (Cutts) . . 289 

The Doge op Venice Going in Procession through the City. 

From the engraving by J. Amman, 16th century. (Lacroix) 292 

Merchants Welcoming a Queen. From a 15th century manu- 
script of Froissart's Chronicles. (Cutts) .... 294 

Members of the Choir Sitting in Their Stalls at Church. 
From the Book of Hours of Richard II in the British Museum. 
(Cutts) 296 

A Bishop Ordaining a Priest. From a 12th century manu- 
script. (Gardiner) ........ 299 

A Cathedral of the Middle Ages. From a photograph of the 

Cathedral at Rheims . . . . . . . .301 

A Monk with Gifts for His Monastery. From a manuscript 

in the British Museum. (Cutts) 304 

An Abbot. From the same. (Cutts) ..... 305 

The Crowning of the Virgin Mary. From the painting by Fra 

Angelieo 306 

A Monk in a Library. From a manuscript in the Library of 

Soissons. (Cutts) 308 

A. Picture Painted by a Monk in an Old Book. From a min- 
iature in the "Terence" of King Charles VI. (Lacroix) . 309 

Initial Letter from an Old Manuscript. (Lacroix et Sere) . 310 

A Gift to the Monastery. From a manuscript in the British 

Museum. (Cutts) 313 

A Monastery Cloister. In the mission of San Juan Capistrano, 

California 314 

A Tomb. In the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome . 319 

A Pilgrim. From a manuscript in the British Museum. (Cutts) 320 

A Great Noble Goes on a Pilgrimage. From a manuscript 

Life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. (Cutts) . 321 

A Vista in a Saracen Palace. The Alhambra in Spain . . 327 

Jerusalem. From a wood-cut in Liber Chronicarum Mundi, 

Nuremberg, 1493. (Lacroix) ...... 331 



XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGB 

Soldier with an Earlt Form op Firearm. From a drawing 

in the British Museum. (Cutis) 335 

A Printing Office of the Sixteenth Century. From a con- 
temporary engraving . . . . . . . . 337 

Martin Luther as a Monk. From an engraving made in 1520 338 

A Portuguese Ship. From a wood-cut of about 1516 in the 

British Museum. (Synge) ....... 345 

Marco Polo. From a wood-cut in the first printed edition of his 

book, 1477. (Synge) 347 

The Polos Begin Their Journey. From the Livre des Mer- 

veilles, 14th century. (Synge) ...... 348 

Kublai Khan. From an old Chinese encyclopedia. (Synge) . 349 

Henry THE Navigator. After a print by Simon de Passe. (Re- 
produced in Chatterton, Ships and Ways of Other Days) . 352 

Vasco da Gama. From a contemporary portrait. (Synge) . 358 

Columbus, Departing on His First Voyage, Takes Leave of 

THE King and Queen. An old print .... 364 

The Santa Maria. From a wood-cut of 1493. (Reproduced in 

Ruge, Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen) . . . 366 

A Fleet of Magellan's Time. From Mereator's Mappe 

Monde, 1569. (Synge) 371 

Magellan's Victorious Ship. From Hulsius, Collection of 

Voyages, 1602 374 

Spanish Conquest of Mexico. From an ancient Aztec drawing. 

(Synge) 380 

San Domingo in 1586. From A Summarie and True Discourse 

of Sir Francis Drake's West Indian Voyage .... 383 

Emperor Charles V. From the painting by Titian . . 386 

Philip XL From the painting by Titian 389 

English and Spanish. From De Bry, Collections of Travels and 

Voyages, 1599 395 

Francis Drake. From an engraving by Hondius, 1582 . . 397 

The Ark Royal. From an engraving in the British Museum . 403 

The Armada Fight. From Adams, Series of Views of the 

Armada in the British Museum 405 

God's Providence House. In Chester, England . . . 406 

Royal Procession of Queen Elizabeth to Visit a Lord. 
A painting. (Reproduced in Nichols, Progresses and Public 
Processions of Queen Elizabeth. London, 1823) . . . 407 

An Indian of Virginia. From a water-color drawing by John 
White of Raleigh's expedition (1585). In the British 
Museum 410 

The Town op New Amsterdam, or New York, as it Ap- 
peared IN 1673. From a contemporary engraving . 412-413 

Old Spanish Gate at St. Augustine 414 



OUR ANCESTORS IN EUROPE 

PART I. THE ANCIENT WORLD 

CHAPTER I 
GREECE, THE EXPLORER AND TEACHER 

The World before Our Time 

As you very well know, there was a time when no 
white man lived in America. In 1500 Europe and Asia 
and northern Africa were the only homes of civilized 
people. Even in that small world the people of the East 
and the people of the West knew little of each other. 
France, Italy, Spain, Germany, England really made up 
a world of their own. Architects had filled these coun- 
tries with beautiful churches and castles and palaces. 
Painters and sculptors had adorned them with pictures 
and statues. Poets and philosophers and historians were 
writing great books, and people all over Europe were 
reading and studying. 

But it had not always been so. Fifteen hundred 
years before the discovery of America, northern Europe 
had been a wilderness inhabited by barbarians. There 
men had lived in mean little houses and had dressed 
in skins. They had wandered from place to place 
in search of new pastures for their cattle or of fresh 
fields for game. They had been unable to read or 
to write. It was Rome who had taught these barbarians 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 




Assyrian King Hunting 

Carved on the wall of the king's palace about 2800 years ago. Notice the 
king's embroidered robe. Attendant protects him with spear and shield 



and had civilized them. But long before that time Rome 
herself had been half barbarian and had had to learn 
from older nations. Greece was her great teacher. And 
Greece in turn had been ignorant and had been taught 
by Egypt, Phoenicia, Assyria. 

When Greece was young, the civilized world was a nar- 
row fringe around the eastern end of the Mediterranean. 
There men wore beautiful clothes of marvelously dyed 
and embroidered cloth. They lived in huge stone palaces 
gay with carved and painted walls. They drove in char- 
iots and made great walled cities. They built monu- 
ments and carved histories upon them. They studied the 
stars. They dug mines for gold and silver and copper 
and made shining vases and cups and plates and bracelets 
and rings and crowns and necklaces. Their bodies and 
their walls were gorgeous with precious ornaments. Out 
of this rich old world grew up Greece, the queen of 
learning. All western peoples to-day look back to her as 
the mother of their thought and their art. To show a 
little how these teachers of civilization did their work and 
how others carried it on, is the purpose of this book. 



GREECE, THE EXPLORER AND TEACHER 




Assyrian Lion Hunt 

Notice the elaborate harness. The king carries a sword slung over his shoulder 
by a strap. Two attendants have bows across their shoulders 

Early Greek Exploration 

Greece is a sailor's country. Long arms of bays cut 
into the land and invite men to try the gentle water. 
Long points of land jut into the sea like ships' prows, and 
islands close together beckon a boat from one to another 
out from the mainland. So Greeks very early became 
seafaring people. Some of their oldest stories show 
them venturing into unknown waters, finding wild, un- 
civilized lands, and meeting many dangers. Jason and 
his friends, fifty young heroes, planned a search for 
a certain marvelous ram's fleece of gold, so the story 
goes. They built a boat of fifty oars — the greatest 
ship of her time — and when they had finished 
her, these inexperienced ship-builders could not ^^^^^ ^°" 
launch her but had to lure her into the sea by 
magic songs, the story says. Then every hero took an 
oar, and they rowed toward the strange North, hugging 
the shore for safety or feeling their way out to near-by 
islands. 

They passed through the narrow Hellespont and on 
into the Propontis, where few Greeks had ever gone. 



4 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

Here giants with six arms fell upon them at night and 
would have killed them except for godlike Herakles. 
And again some of the heroes had a battle with the 
monsters of the whirlwinds. After many days of bitter 
toil and danger, they came out into what we call the 
Black Sea, but they called it Axinus, or the Sea Unfriendly 
to Strangers ; for it stretched before them broad and 
empty and shoreless. There were no snug harbors 
where they might hide from storms. No safe islands 
offered refuge and resting place. Mists hung over the 
marshy shores, and the sky was gloomy. Yet the heroes 
pushed on, and dangers enough they met, according to 
the old tale — hot rivers and savage people and wander- 
ing rocks that clashed together with a great spouting of 
the sea. 

But at last, with magic help, they obtained that Golden 
Fleece and started homeward. Then adventures fell 
thick about them. For days a storm raged and hid the 
shores and the sky. Because they had no way to steer 
but by the sun in the daytime and the stars by night, they 
lost their course and wandered they knew not where. 
They met cannibals and the magic-singing sirens, who 
would have eaten them, and horrid Scylla, with six long 
necks and ravenous dogs' mouths that snatched at them 
as they passed her cave. They encountered shoals and 
fogs and quicksands and deserts. But at last they came 
to the island-sown ^gean Sea, where they were safe. 
After their many years of strange adventuring around 
the edges of the world, they finally reached home. 

Another famous sailor of the old stories was Odysseus, 
who started out from Troy in Asia Minor on his home- 
ward voyage to Ithaca, around on the western 

Odvsscus 

side of Greece. But the ships of those days 
were frail craft, and the storms crushed them. Sailors 



GREECE, THE EXPLORER AND TEACHER 




The Monster Scylla 

She is snatching some of Odysseus' 

men. Odysseus wears a Greek 

sailor's cap 



did not know how to tack against the wind, and there- 
fore unfriendly gales whirled Odysseus out of his way. For 
ten years he sailed about from 
unknown shore to unknown 
shore, visiting lands no other 
Greek had ever seen. He 
was buffeted by storms, at- 
tacked by savages, tempted 
by enchantresses. He saw 
such marvels as a one-eyed 
giant, the story says, and 
lazy people who drugged 
themselves with a flowery 
food, and men bewitched and 
changed to animals. He lost 
all his ships and men, but at last he, himself, reached home, 
full of tales of the wonderful lands outside of Greece. 

I cannot think that these stories are utterly untrue. 
Imagine yourself lost at sea and wrecked upon the shore 
of Greenland, the first white man to see it. 
What a marvelous tale you would tell when What These 
you again reached home! ''It is a huge piece gj^j^ 
of ice floating in the sea," you would say. 
''Men there have hair all over their bodies. The sky 
burns." In your hurry to get away you had not waited 
to investigate very closely, and you had seen such won- 
ders that you could not find fit words to tell of them. 
If some one who heard you should tell some one else 
the marvelous tale, and he should pass it on to another, 
the last story might be very astonishing and yet founded 
upon fact. 

So it is, I think, with these old Greek stories. Man is 
a land animal, and the sea of old time was full of terrors 
for him. So the very monsters of these tales, told and 



6 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

even written down as early as 800 b.c, hint that the 
ancient Greeks went exploring outside of their own 
iEgean, that they actually did find uncivilized lands, that 
they met whirlpools and whirlwinds and dangerous rocks, 
that they saw strange and warlike peoples, that they found 
gold and treasure. 

When one man has traveled a new route and comes 
back with interesting stories, other men become ambitious 
Reasons ^^ ^^^ ^^® same wonders and to push a little 
for Greek farther. Many ships, therefore, followed in the 
Explor- wake of the first one that entered the Black 
ation gg^ ^^^ ^£ ^j^g £^g^ ^^g ^-^^^ struck out into 

the open waters west of Greece. Besides men's natural 
curiosity and love of adventure, there were other reasons 
that drove the Greeks to exploring. 

Greece is a very beautiful land. It is a tangle of 
mountain chains, sharp and steep, with snow-capped 
peaks here and there. Between are little valleys with 
winding rivers. The rock is mostly limestone, and 
springs have cut it full of holes and caves. Long arms 
of the blue sea run inland and bring the sea air. Cliffs 
and headlands boldly rise from the water. Greek plants 
are lovely and interesting — grapes and currants and 
laurel on the hillsides, olives and figs and pomegranates 
in the valleys, oleanders and narcissus and violets and 
roses along the watercourses. 

The Greeks, loving their land for its beauty, thought 
that it possessed every other virtue, even fertility. They 
spoke of it as ''fruitful," ''deep-soiled," "deep-bosomed." 
Yet in reality it is not a fertile country. Most of the 
land is mountainous and cannot be used for farming at 
all. The valleys are small. Thessaly, the largest plain 
in Greece, is not sixty miles square. And even in many 
of the valleys the soil is light. The climate, moreover, 




[7] 



8 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

is dry, so that farmers have always had to irrigate. Yet 
ancient Greece was crowded with people hving mostly 
in cities and villages, and busy with farming, mining, and 
manufacturing. 

Therefore, although every piece of farming land was 
used for garden or orchard or vineyard, yet Greece could 
not raise enough wheat to feed herself, and she wanted 
more gold and silver and copper and iron than she could 
find in her own mines, and more fish than her own sea 
would furnish. Neither was there enough timber in the 
country for all the ship -building and house-building. So 
her men were forced to go exploring. The country 
became crowded, too, and young men were eager to try 
their fortunes in a new land. 

Another thing that tempted the Greeks out into un- 
known waters was the example of still earlier and greater 
The voyagers, the Phoenicians. These people had 

Earlier gone everywhere. They had built towns in Sicily 
Explorers ^nd a great city called Carthage in Africa. They 
had a colony in Spain, at the very end of the world. They 
had even ventured out into the unknown great ocean past 
the Pillars of Hercules, and had sailed away north to 
Britain, where they worked rich tin mines. Herodotus, 
an ancient Greek historian, says, indeed, that they made 
a three years' voyage from the Red Sea around the whole 
of Africa, doubling its very southern end and coming north- 
ward and back into the Mediterranean through the Pillars 
of Hercules, which we call the Strait of Gibraltar.^ 

Phoenician merchants were continually landing, too, 
upon Greek coasts, telling of foreign lands and selling 
foreign goods. The quick-witted Greeks bought the 
goods, gave eager ear to the tales, studied the boats, 
and copied them. Soon they began to follow in the wake 

^ See page 354. 




53 S? 



[9] 



lO THE ANCIENT WORLD 

of the daring vessels flying past into the strange waters of 
the North and the West. 

The ships in which the Greeks did their voyaging 
were small, not often over a hundred feet long and per- 
haps a fourth as wide. They were, moreover, shallow, 




A Greek Ship 



The sail is furled, while the men row. The pilot uses oars instead of a rudder. 
Notice the eye painted on the prow, that the ship may see its way. There is 
a small decked cabin in the prow. A ship had more rowers than this, but the 
old vase-painter liked his picture better with few men. Read a story of Odys- 
seus and the sirens, and you will understand about the man bound to the mast 



carrying what would seem to us a very small cargo. 
One mast stood amidships and held a square sail. 

There was no centerboard, and every sailor 
?5f ^ knows what that means : the ship could only 

run before the wind. If the course lay north, 
and the wind was blowing from that direction, the sail was 
furled, the mast taken down and stowed away, and the 
men sat down to row ; for the ship carried perhaps twenty 
or thirty long oars in case of need. There was no such 
rudder as we have, but a broad oar was fastened to the 



GREECE, THE EXPLORER AND TEACHER i> 

ship's side and projected past the stern. With this the 
pilot steered, with no hghthouses to warn him off the 
rocks, no map to guide him, and no compass to give 
him directions. 

When the ship reached its harbor, the men leaped out 
and pulled it up on the beach. They camped on shore, 
cooking at a bonfire and sleeping on the sand. On the 
voyage they must have lain on the open deck or in the 
hold, curled up among the cargo. It sounds Hke a camp- 
ing party, living in the open and exploring the wilderness 
for the fun of the thing. Yet these were the great traders 
and sailors and civilizers of their time. 

Ancient Peoples of the Mediterranean 

The Mediterranean world which these early voyagers 
saw, eight, seven, six hundred years before Christ, was 
very different from what it is now. At the eastern end 
were the old and civilized nations of the world — the 
Egyptians in Africa, the Hebrews and the Phoenicians on 
the shore of Asia, the Lydians north of them, the Assyrians 
behind them. Still farther east was the half-known, 
mysterious India, and beyond that no man knew what. 
The Greeks, younger children of civilization, inhabited 
the western fringe of Asia Minor and the islands of the 
iEgean, as well as the mainland of Greece. But all of 
Europe except Greece, and all Africa except Egypt, was 
wilderness, inhabited by uncivilized warlike tribes. 

The Euxine Sea, that is, the Black Sea, says Herodotus, 
''except for the Scythians, exhibits the most ig- 
norant nations." Then he describes the Scyth- 
ians. ''They have neither cities nor fortifications, but 
carry their houses with them. They are all equestrian 
archers, living not from the cultivation of the earth but 
from cattle, and their dwellings are wagons." And he goes 



12 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

on to tell how after a battle they made drinking cups from 
the skulls of their slain enemies, hanging the scalps from 
the bridles of their horses. 

The people of Spain, and the Gauls in what is now 

France, were only a little less savage. The tribes of 

northern Africa were gentle brown people, 

ausan j^Qg^ <-,£ them "nomads who eat flesh and 

Afncans 

drink milk," Herodotus tells us. Of one tribe 
he says, ''In the summer they leave their cattle on the 
coast and go [inland] in order to gather the fruit of the 
palm trees." And others of them cut their hair in strange 
fashion and "bedaub their bodies with vermilion." 

In the middle part of Italy were the Latins, from whom 
later came the great Romans. These people, when the 
Greeks began to colonize the West, seven 
hundred years before Christ, were already 
settled farmers, raising grain and grapes, making flour 
and wine. They spun and wove garments of wool. 
There were dyers to make the cloth beautiful, and fullers 
to clean their robes. They had sandal makers and gold- 
smiths and coppersmiths and carpenters and potters. 
They sailed the sea and traded with their neighbors. A 
king ruled over them with senators to help him make the 
laws ; and those laws were good and just. Yet these 
people had no alphabet, and therefore could not read nor 
write ; had no schools ; and made no beautiful buildings 
or statues. 

To these half-civilized shores went the adventurous 
Greeks. Their trading parties carried with them gold 
Tradin jewelry, bronze pots, brilhant cloth, wine, 
stations oil, swords — such things as uncivihzed people 
and would be eager for. They made a tempting 

Factories display of these goods on the shore and sent 
inland to invite the natives to come and buy. But 



GREECE, THE EXPLORER AND TEACHER 13 

barbarian people never have money, so they brought 
down with them whatever they had — sheep, cattle, 
cheeses. A good trade was made, both sides were pleased, 
and the Greek ship went home laden with a new cargo to 
be sold in the city. Another time it returned and traded 
again. The merchant perhaps bought a little piece of 
shore from the natives, put up a storehouse and stocked 
it with goods, and left two or three men to keep up the 
trade with the barbarians while the ship went to and 
fro. 

Sometimes the natives had nothing that the Greeks 
wanted, but the exploring trader might find veins of 
metal or forests where he could cut timber. At his next 
visit he would bring a company of men and establish a 
lumber camp or a mining camp and would get natives to 
help in the work. Or perhaps he would find broad, 
fertile plains that were good for raising wheat. He 
would bring seed and plows and workmen and plant a 
crop, and during a few seasons he would teach the people 
of the country to till the ground. Then he would be sure 
of a cargo that would sell well in any city of crowded 
little Greece. 

Colonization 

If trade or industry prospered at one of these stations, 
it would be talked of in Greece, and people would become 
interested, especially men who liked novelty, or who 
were in trouble of some kind. ''We will begin over again 
in a new place," these men would say. Word would go 
about that a company was to start out from a certain 
city to found a colony in such and such a place, and other 
people who wanted to go would flock there. 

But the Greeks, although they were great travelers, 
were also great lovers of home. They dreaded cutting 



14 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

the ties that bound them to the place where their fam- 
ihes had hved for generations. So before this company 
of colonists started, they went to the hearth 
Cobnv^ ^ ^^ their city. For besides all other temples 
every Greek town had a little building with 
an altar, where burned always the sacred fire of the 
city that seemed like its very breath. A little of that 
holy fire the colonists took with them in their ship and 
carefully tended it on the voyage. And a little of the 
home earth from beneath the altar they took, and a 
priest. In the new land they spread out the handful of 
earth and planted the new altar upon it. Upon the altar 
they put the holy fire that they had brought. So the 
new town was born, and the people felt that she was the 
daughter of their old home city. 

In this way hundreds of colonies were formed all around 
Extent of ^^® edges of the Mediterranean. One city 
Greek alone, Miletus in Asia Minor, was the mother 
Coloniza- of eighty towns, most of which were on the 
**°° Black Sea. On the shores where once the 

Argonauts had found the Golden Fleece, Greek miners 
collected gold from the rivers and dug it from mines. 
In the mountains they found iron and cut timber. 

On the level plains that border the sea at the north and 
west they grew wheat. Odessa, a Russian city of to-day 
and one of the greatest wheat markets of the world, is 
named after one of those old Greek colonies planted in 
the wheat region. The native Scythians about this 
district were shepherd people, and they traded beeves 
and hides and wool for armor and golden ornaments. 
To-day people are digging for the graves of these ancient 
barbarians, and they find in them, hundreds of miles 
from Greece though they are, beautiful Greek cups and 
necklaces and bracelets. 




[15] 



l6 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

Another of the greatest industries of this northern 
region was fishing. The Propontis (or Sea of Marmora) 
Towns ^^^ ^he mouth of the Borysthenes (or Dnieper) 
of the River swarmed with tunny. Fleets of Greek 

Black Sea fighing boats were busy here, and on the shores 
were Unes of sheds, where the catch was dried and salted. 

Another commodity the Greeks got from the Black 
Sea district, — slaves. It is a terrible thought to us that 
men should be bought and sold hke cattle, but the 
ancient world had not yet learned that all men have 
a right to freedom. Every nation used great numbers 
of slaves — to work mines, farms, and factories, to row 
ships, to help in the work of the house, and to serve as 
personal attendants. The people living north of the Black 
Sea were made up of many tribes that were continually 
at war with one another, and the victors were glad to carry 
'their captives down to the shore and sell them to the 
Greeks. 

Besides slaves, gold, iron, fish, and lumber, the Greeks 
got from the Black Sea country fiax.and pitch, wax and 
honey. Indeed, so full of treasures was this region that, 
in spite of the fact that the sea was still dangerous to 
navigate, the surrounding country often ice-covered, and 
some of the natives hostile, yet they changed its old name 
of "Sea Unfriendly to Strangers" and called it "Euxine, " 
*'Sea Friendly to Strangers" ; and scores of Greek towns 
lined its shores. 

Greek ships had gone west as well as north and had 
found Italy and the great fertile island of Sicily. It was 
the very kind of country to please these people 
itai ^ ^ — mountainous like their own, but with broader 
plains between the mountains. It had, too, the 
same jagged coast, full of harbors, and the same brilliant 
sky. So colony after colony was founded here about the 



GREECE, THE EXPLORER AND TEACHER 17 

shores of Sicily and of southern Italy, until the land was as 
Greek as Greece itself and even took the proud name of 
"Magna Graecia" or ''Great Greece." 

Many of the towns grew to be larger and richer than 
their own mother cities in the East. Their kings had 
stables and fine race horses and elegant chariots. Phi- 
losophers and poets hved there and wrote, and learned 
men from the older countries were glad to visit in the 
courts of Sicily. The greatest industry here was wheat 
raising ; in fact, this island was one of the granaries 
of the world. But on the mountains back from the 
shore there was, also, much herding, and Sicilian cheeses 
became famous. Indeed, Sicily was a land of varied riches. 

Still farther west than Italy, the Greeks settled along 
the coast of Spain and France. The present French city of 
Marseilles is the old Greek colony of Massilia. 
When the Greeks first visited these shores, 
six hundred years before Christ, they found here a Phoeni- 
cian settlement, as they did in many another place. But 
they drove out the earlier people and made a Greek city. 
And this Massiha herself planted other colonies, until the 
southern shore of Gaul (as France used to be called) was 
a fringe of Greek towns with good harbors and a long 
road to connect them, running from Spain into Italy. 

There were fisheries on the shores ; for these are the very 
waters where we now get our best sardines. Back in the 
Spanish mountains were mines of gold and silver and copper. 
Spain, indeed, was the ''California of ancient days," 
with its rich gold finds. The settlers made salt, traded 
with the natives for slaves and dyes and honey and 
cattle, and grew grapes and olives in the fertile plains. 
Best of all, down the Rhone River, that reaches far back 
into France, came native traders who had met other 
traders from far-off Britain and had brought down from 



l8 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

there precious tin, a metal that the Greeks much needed 
in the making of their weapons and dishes and vases and 
statues of bronze. So the GaUic colonies prospered. 

On the northern shore of Africa, in a fertile spot, was 
another line of Greek settlements. Behind them stretched 
the mysterious desert, and brown men ''came 
to the shore with horses and camels, with 
black slaves, with apes, parrots, and other wonderful 
animals, with dates and rare fruits." And at the very 
door of rich old Egypt, too, the Greeks planted cities and 
bought her wheat and linen and ivory and beautiful things. 

Into these new lands where the colonists settled they 
Effect of carried their own customs. They planted olive 
Greek orchards and made oil, vineyards and made 
Coioniza- wine. They built temples like those at home 
°° and worshiped the same gods. They made 

walled cities set close with houses that had flat roofs 
and pleasant inner courtyards. They furnished their 
rooms with simple, graceful furniture. They used beau- 
tiful vases of clay and bronze. They had banquets 
and sang songs. They practised gymnastic games and 
dances. In fact, they lived in the colonies as they had 
lived in their Greek homes. 

The barbarians from round about all of these trans- 
planted Greek cities continually visited the towns to buy 
or sell, and they stayed to gaze at the wonders. Many 
of them the Greeks employed. Barbarian fathers, seeing 
Greek books and men reading interesting things in them, 
sometimes sent their sons to hve in a Greek family that 
they might learn to read and write. It often happened 
that Greek men married native women, and their children 
grew up as Greeks. Many barbarians, too, came to live 
in the colony, and their grandchildren forgot that they 
were not real Greeks. 



GREECE, THE EXPLORER AND TEACHER 19 

So Greek learning and Greek ways of living spread. 
One of the tribes of Sicily became so thoroughly saturated 
with Greek ideas, or so Hellenized (as we say), that they 
tried to build towns like the Greek cities, and perhaps 
half the population of the civilized and elegant Magna 
Grsecia were Hellenized natives. The same thing hap- 
pened in southern Gaul. Even far up the Rhone Hellen- 
ized Gauls built towns on Greek models and lived lives 
after the Greek manner. Over in eastern Europe two 
strong young nations, Thrace and Macedon, half Greek 
to begin with, grew up in the north country under Greek 
teaching. We shall hear of Macedon again as the land 
of Alexander the Great. 



1. In the map of Greece count the islands. (Yet these are only a few 
of them.) How niany good harbors can you find ? On which side are 
most of them ? Can you see why Greece had most of her dealings with 
countries east of her? Find good farming land. Find shut-in valleys. 
2. Write an ignorant sailor's account of a voyage past a volcano. Is 
it in any way like the descriptions that the Argonauts made of the 
wonders they saw? 3. Make as full a hst as you can of the peoples of 
the ancient world. 4. How did your own town begin? 5. What other 
ancient people made trading posts like those that Greece established? 
6. What modern countries have important colonies ? Where are 
those colonies? Name some way in which they are different from 
Greek colonies. 7. Find out what you can about Herodotus (from an 
encyclopedia, a history of Greece, or the introduction to Everyman 
edition of Herodotus). What opportunities did he have for learning 
the true facts for the stories he tells ? If you read any of these stories, 
notice some of the different ways in which he learned about what he 
tells. 8. From your geography find what to-day are the products of 
the places mentioned on pages 14 to 18 as the districts colonized by 
the Greeks. 




Zeus 



Here 



Poseidon Demeter 



Zeus carries his thunderbolt, Poseidon his fisher- 
man's trident, Demeter her wheat heads 



CHAPTER II 



WHAT GREECE HAD TO TEACH THE WORLD 

Religion 

What was the Greek life to which the people of the 
Mediterranean had been introduced? We have learned 
a better religion than the Greeks knew, and yet there 
were many beautiful things about that behef of theirs. 
The world seemed to them too great and too varied 
for one god to rule, so they thought there were many. 
These great beings were like men and women, but taller, 
more beautiful, and wiser. They lived in a marvelous 
city in the sky with a wall of bronze running around it, 
and within it were golden palaces set in gardens. One 
of the old poets, speaking of this Olympus, the dwelling 
place of the gods, says : ''Not by winds is it shaken, nor 
ever wet with rain, nor doth the snow come nigh thereto, 
but most clear air is spread about it cloudless, and the 
white light floats over it. Therein the blessed gods are 
glad for all their days." 



WHAT GREECE HAD TO TEACH THE WORLD 21 

Those gods it was who brought all things to pass in the 
earth and in the sky. Every day Apollo drove the 
chariot of the sun on its course through the heavens to 
light the world and to warm it. Zeus, the king of gods 
and men, sent rain upon the earth to water it. Poseidon 
stirred up storms on the sea and calmed them. Dionysus 
guarded the vineyards and filled the grapes with sweet 
juice, and Demeter brought all heads of grain to yellow 
ripeness. 

The gods read men's hearts also, punished them for " 
evil deeds, and encouraged them to live righteously. The 
gods gave help, too, in the common work of men's daily 
lives. A sailor prayed to Hermes for a favorable breeze. 
A bronze worker, laboring on a beautiful shield, asked 
Hephaestus, the blacksmith god, to help him. A hunter 
prayed to Artemis, goddess of the moon and of the chase, 
to send his arrow to the mark. A shepherd prayed to 
Pan for fat flocks and thick fleeces. A man in doubt 
how to act asked help from Athene, the wise giver of 
good counsel. 

Here is an ancient prayer that men used to sing to 
Hephaestus: ''Sing, shrill Muse, of Hephaestus renowned 
in craft, who with gray-eyed Athene taught goodly works 
to men on earth, even to men that before were wont to 
dwell in mountain caves like beasts ; but now, being 
instructed in craft by the renowned craftsman, He- 
phaestus, lightly the whole year through they dwell happily 
in their own homes. Be gracious, Hephaestus, and grant 
me valor and fortune." 

Art 

Men sang these prayers with hands and faces uplifted 
to the bright sky where the gods dwelt, and they stood 
before altars of stone or turf or ashes whereon were burn- 




[22 



WHAT GREECE HAD TO TEACH THE WORLD 23 

ing sacrifices of flesh or of holy cakes. Sometimes the 
altars were out of doors, — in the woods, by the roadside, 
in the street, in the market-place, — but often 
they had beautiful temples built about them. 
Always there were priests to tend them, and people 
brought gifts of love to deck the place. All over the 
Greek world, from Asia Minor to Spain, were thousands 
of these altars and inclosing temples. Every city had 
scores of them. Every day prayers were going up to the 
gods, and on festival days men were singing hymns or 
dancing sacred dances in their honor. 

The most beautiful of all Greek temples was the Par- 
thenon in Athens. It is, of course, in ruins now, as all 
ancient Greek buildings are ; for, during two 

. The 

thousand years, rain and blowing dust have been Parthenon 
at work wearing off the stone ; earthquakes 
have shaken walls ; fighting armies have battered them 
down or blown them up with powder ; careless men have 
torn them to pieces to build new houses or to throw into 
the lime-kiln. Yet, even to-day, the Parthenon is so 
beautiful that it makes a man's heart leap to see it. 

In ancient times it was a low marble house with a 
porch on all sides of it. A great procession of columns 
held up the roof. They were big and strong 
and solemn, yet so delicately was every one 
curved as it rose that it seemed not crushed down by its 
own great weight but light and lithe like an athlete. In 
the shade of the high porch men could walk and look up 
at a carved procession of horsemen and charioteers and 
men and women afoot, going around the building at the 
top of the marble wall. Above the porches in the gable 
ends were great groups of marble statues large as life, 
showing deeds of Athene, the goddess of the temple and 
the favorite goddess of all Athens. 



24 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

This whole great building of marble — marble walls, 
marble floors, marble columns, marble statues, even 
marble tiles on the roof — was not a mass of blinding 
white. Rather there was a deep color in the flutes of 
the columns. Around the doors and along the edges of 
the wall was a painted border of leaves. On the peaks 
of the gable and the corner of the eaves were golden 
ornaments. The statues were delicately tinted so that 



F 



'~^ 




«i " *•- r«ii£ 

GrEKK 1 I dKSB-MEN 

From the carved marble frieze that goes in a band around the 
wall of the Parthenon porch 

the marble was of the color of flesh, the eyes were blue, 
and even the garments were tinted. Behind the statues 
was a reddish wall to set them out clearly to men's eyes. 
Inside this temple, in a great room where only a soft 

light entered through the thin marble tiles of 
Athene ^^® ^^^^ ^^^ through the wide door that opened 

toward the morning sun, was Phidias' wonderful 
statue of Athene. She stood forty feet tall, gazing kindly 
down upon her people. Her face and hands and feet 



WHAT GREECE HAD TO TEACH THE WORLD 25 

were of soft-gleaming ivory perfectly carved, and all her 
long, straight-falling robe was gold. Below her curled 
sweet smoke from a holy fire that burned always. On 
her birthdays the room was filled with her Athenians 
singing to her and bringing gifts. 

The architect who made that building spared no trouble 
in having it perfect. ''A long, fiat floor generally looks 
high at the ends and sunken in the middle," T^e 
he said. ''Now my floor must look flat. So Builder's 
I must raise it in the middle." This he did, Work 
and every big block of marble that went into that long 
floor had to be chiseled carefully to fit the gentle curve. 
If the floor curved, then every other line must curve 
to correspond, and the stonecutters had to chip delicately 
at every block, as though they had been carving statues. 

Each column is made of eight pieces piled one on top 
of another, yet so perfectly were they fitted that even 
now, after war and earthquakes, there are joints that 
you cannot see ; and nowhere is there coarse mortar to fill 
cracks or to hold the stones together. When it was done, 
the whole building, walls and floor and all, was rubbed 
down in some way, so that the face of the marble shines 
like hard ivory. Those old Greeks were willing to spend 
time and thought and care in making beautiful things. 

In every temple, on street corners, in the market-place, 
at springs along the country roads, in sacred places around 
altars, in the courts of houses, were statues. 
Hundreds of them have been lost. Perhaps 
people long ago melted up the bronze ones in time of war 
to make weapons. Some of the marble ones barbarous 
people threw into lime-kilns and burned up to make lime 
to plaster their houses. But if all those that we have 
found could be brought together into one place, they 
would make a large town of marble and bronze people, 



26 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

and every one of them would be beautiful and graceful 
and perfect, as common people are not. 

There would be in that silent company people doing 
most of the things that ordinary men did. Some would 
be driving chariots and riding horses ; some would be 
throwing quoits and boxing and wrestling and running. 
Others would be swinging swords and pushing lances and 
shooting arrows. A few would be playing with babies. 
Some would be bathing or putting on their cloaks or 
tying their sandals. Some would be praying or dancing ; 
and many would be idly sitting or standing about waiting 
for friends, talking with companions, or musing about 
pleasant things. Many of them would be gods and god- 
desses, and others would be men, — orators, poets, 
athletes, warriors. Almost all of them would be sadly 
broken. The arms would be gone, or the legs would be 
missing, perhaps even the head would be lost or the 
nose broken off. 

But after a while you would cease to be troubled by 
this broken condition, because in spite of it the statues 
would be so beautiful. The marble would be creamy 
and smooth, the bronze would be coated with soft green. 
The bodies would be slender and straight-limbed, with 
firm muscles like a young athlete's body. The faces 
would be of lovely shape, with a gentle, musing look. 
Besides, the very fact that they were broken would 
make them all the more interesting. It would remind 
you that they are hundreds and hundreds of years old, 
that they have seen wars and earthquakes, that they 
have watched generations of men come and go and have 
seen governments and civilizations swept away and new 
ones established. Many of them have been found in 
modern times buried in the ground, but what accident 
has brought them there we seldom know. 



28 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



For instance, the statue of Aphrodite, or Venus, in the 

picture, the goddess of love and beauty, was found about 

a hundred years ago on the island of Melos. 

Melos ^ Greek peasant happened to see a glint of 

marble at the back of a cave as he passed 

its mouth one day. Going in, he found a statue, with 

arms already broken 
off and lost. He had 
never been taught to 
know and enjoy beau- 
tiful things, yet he 
thought this might be 
worth taking home, 
— any piece of mar- 
ble was. He tied a 
rope around it and, 
harnessing his horse 
to it, dragged it down 
the stony road to the 
shore. 

It happened that a 
Frenchman was visit- 
ing the island at the 
time, and when he 
saw the statue he 
eagerly bought it and presented it to the French king. 
Now it is one of the most precious treasures of the Louvre, 
a great art museum in Paris, and half the world has learned 
to love it. Many people have tried to fancy what Aphro- 
dite was doing with those lost arms, how they were bro- 
ken, when and why she was hidden, just where she stood 
originally, and who made her, but we really know almost 
nothing of her history. 

The statue of Hermes we know more about. Praxiteles 




llEHMhs OF Praxiteles 



WHAT GREECE HAD TO TEACH THE WORLD 29 

made it, and the Greeks thought him one of the best of 
their sculptors. For years it stood in Here's temple in 
Olympia, where the great game-festival was 
held. But after the world became Christian, t^^""^^!° 

' Praxiteles 

these games were stopped, and Olympia was 
deserted. An earthquake shook down the walls and 
toppled over the statues. A httle river that flowed 
near by flooded and covered the ruins with sand, and 
grass and trees grew above the buried statues. Then 
at last, about forty years ago, some Germans who loved 
the beautiful old Greek things went to the place and 
dug, hoping to uncover something interesting. Under 
fifteen feet of sand and clay they found this Hermes, 
arms and legs gone, but otherwise perfect. On the 
sandal of a broken foot they even found the gilding that 
the artist had laid on two thousand years before. 

The Olympic Games 

This Olympia where Hermes was found was one of the 
most interesting places in Greece. The Greeks thought 
that the most beautiful thing in the world 
is the human body when it is properly de- ^^" 
veloped. So the whole afternoon of every 
schoolboy's day was given up to gymnastic exercises. 
Not only was he taught to jump, to wrestle, to run, to 
throw the disk and the spear, and to dance ; but he was 
given calisthenic drills and exercises with dumb-bells in 
order to make him graceful and to strengthen the muscles 
that were weak. For the purpose of all this training was 
not to make professional athletes who should be able to 
do special tricks, but to develop a strong and beautiful 
and healthy body. 

Not only did schoolboys have this training, but in 
every town were large free gymnasiums for grown men, 



30 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



and every day all the citizens who had any leisure went 
there and exercised so that they should not grow weak 
or too fat or too lean as age came upon them. These 
exercises, moreover, were out of doors; for the gym- 
nasium was really only a large yard surrounded by lines 
of small, low sheds used for dressing rooms. There 
was a shady porch before these rooms where men 
might lounge and rest after the games, before they 
took the bath. Sometimes the gymnasium was in a 
grove of olive trees or plane trees, where men strolled 
about. 

The Greeks, loving joy and beauty, believed that the 
gods also loved these things. One way in which they 
. chose to please and honor the gods, therefore, 
was to play games for them to see. There 
were several places in Greece where temples and gym- 
nasiums and race courses had been built for the purpose 
of holding these game-festivals, and Olympia was the 
greatest of them all. For hundreds of years Greeks from 
all over the Mediterranean world had gathered there for 
the games. Building after building had been erected 
until it was like a city of the gods. There were no dwell- 
ing houses ; for nobody hved here permanently except a 
few priests to care for the sacred place. When visitors 
came every four years to the festival, they camped on 
the plain in tents and huts. 

But there were temples — a great one for Zeus and 
another for Here, his wife. In the Zeus temple was a 
gold and ivory statue of the god. Phidias, 
*" °^^ who had made the Parthenon Athene, had 
made this one also, and most men of the ancient world 
thought it the most beautiful of all statues. Modem 
men have never seen it or any other of all the gold and 
ivory statues; for some one of the enemies of Greece 



WHAT GREECE HAD TO TEACH THE WORLD 31 

who conquered her tore them all down, melted up the 

gold to coin money, and carved over the ivory into Uttle 

statuettes, perhaps. But in the time of Olym- 

pia's glory two thousand years ago, the golden 2eus 

Zeus sat on his great golden throne, and men 

by hundreds and thousands, from the far corners of the 

world, came before the statue to sing praise to the real 




Temple of Zeus at Olympia 

It is now in ruins, but the floor and parts of columns, walls, and statues remain. 

From studying these and from reading an old Greek book which describes the 

temple, a modern man made this drawing 



god, who was looking down, they thought, from his high 
throne in Olympus, while all the other gods stood about 
him to watch the festival. And every one of them had 
his altar out of doors somewhere in the sacred grounds of 
Olympia. 

For in one way the Olympic games were very unlike 
our modem athletic meets. Men went to them to wor- 



32 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



ship the gods, and the first day of the festival and the 
last were given over to religious processions from altar to 
altar, to prayers and hymns and sacrifices, and to the 
presenting of gifts to the gods. Standing about these 
temples and altars were thousands of statues of gods, 
heroes, and athletes. It was like a great, beautiful 
playground with men of marble and bronze at exercise. 

Around the grounds went a wall to keep all safe. Out- 
side were still more interesting buildings. ' Here was the 
big gymnasium where men and boys trained for nine 
months to be ready for the great games. Here was the 
open course for the chariot races, and here were the long 
tiers of marble seats down the straight track where men 
and boys ran and boxed and wrestled and leaped and 
threw the disk and the spear. 

On these marble seats every four years sat thousands 
of men come from all parts of the world to watch the 
Olympic games. There were Greeks from Gaul, Sicily, 
Africa, Asia Minor, and the Black Sea country, come 
home once more to their own beloved land. Perhaps 
they brought with them friendly Gauls and Scythians and 
Italians who were eager to learn the Greek ways. There 
were men from the still older civilizations of the East — 
Persians, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Hebrews. 

The v/inner of an Olympic game had his name and 
his fame carried around the world and his story told in 
a score of languages. When he went home to 
the Winner ^^^ ^^^ ^^^Jf ^^6 people threw open the gates 
and poured out to meet him, crying his name 
aloud. A chorus of young men danced in his honor and 
sang a song that a poet had written to glorify mm. 

Here is part of such a song written by famous Pindar 
for the boy Asopichus, winner of the short foot race four 
hundred seventy-six years before Christ. When he 




w '^ 



l33l 



34 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

returned to his home town, a chorus of boys sang it in a 
temple of the Graces. These were the three goddesses 
of song and art and all beautiful and polite and graceful 
things. Their lovely names occur in the first part of 
the song. 

''. . . lady Aglaia, and thou Euphrosyne, lover of 
song, . . . children of the mightiest of the gods, listen 
and hear ; and thou, Thalia, delighting in sweet 
^ . sounds, and look down upon this triumphal 
Song company, moving with light step under happy 

fate. . . . Concerning Asopichus am I come 
hither to sing, for that through thee, Aglaia, in the 
Olympic games [his city] is winner. Fly, Echo, to Per- 
sephone 's dark-walled home [that is, the land of the dead] 
and to his father bear the noble tidings, that seeing him 
thou mayst speak to him of his son, saying that for his 
father's honor in [Olympia's] famous valley he hath 
crowned his boyish hair with garlands from the glorious 
games." 

The victor wore on his hair a simple little wreath of 
olive leaves in sign of his triumph. His family would 
treasure it forever, hanging it over their family altar and 
pointing to it with pride when it should be nothing but 
a dry twig. And perhaps his city would erect his statue 
in some public spot and carve his name below it, and his 
victory. If the boy's family was wealthy, in gratitude 
to the god who had helped him to win and in love for 
Olympia the glorious, they might set up another statue 
there, among all those that crowded the sacred field. 

Greek Cities 

Most of these Greeks were town dwellers. To be sure, 
there were peasants who lived in the country, but most 
farmers chose to have their houses in Httle villages and to 



WHAT GREECE HAD TO TEACH THE WORLD 35 




Three Greeks 

The one at the left is Hermes, the messenger of the gods. He has a traveler's 
broad hat pushed back on his shoulders. The men's costume is such a^ was 
worn by all young men. All women wore a costume like that of the central 

figure 



go out from there to work their fields. For the Greeks 
were sociable people, liking to meet their neighbors 
often, liking to sing and dance together, liking to hear the 
news and to talk politics and to discuss religion and 
philosophy. So the country was filled with thousands 
of villages and hundreds of cities. 

Every little valley had its great town that was mistress 



36 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

of the land and people round about it. The mountains 
cut it off from its next neighbor, and there was httle 
travel across the ranges. So the people of each valley 
came to have their own ways of thinking and doing 
things, their own king or leader, their own patron god, 
even their own dialect. The people of one valley felt 
very closely bound together and very loyal to their own 
city and very sure that their own god, their own speech, 
their own ways, were best. They were often scornful of 
their neighbors' customs and sadly jealous and likely to 
fly to arms. So every town had its wall to protect it in 
time of war. 

There were, indeed, great differences among the cities ; 
and a stranger going to Greece to choose a home would 
have had a difficult time deciding among all 
the interesting and varied places. There 
was, for instance, Sparta. There the people were ruled 
by very strict laws. The whole aim of a Spartan's life 
was to be a brave soldier and to fight for his city. 
Everything he did from the time he was a Httle boy 
was done to help accomplish this purpose. He was 
taken away from his home and his mother, and he 
lived in a military camp among men and boys. Every 
day he had military drill and gymnastic exercises, and 
that was his school. He had coarse food and coarse 
clothes — only one tunic a year. He had to forage for 
his food. He had to learn to endure hunger and pain 
without murmuring. In fact he lived always like a 
soldier. 

There was very little beauty in Sparta. The houses 
were rough buildings of squared logs. The furniture was 
scanty and crude. There were few vases or pictures or 
statues in the whole city. There were temples, but 
they were not lovely like the Parthenon. Yet if you 



WHAT GREECE HAD TO TEACH THE WORLD 37 




A Greek Potter at Work 

He is painting a vase. Notice how he holds his brush. Athene, the goddess 
of handicraft, is going to crown him. The spear and helmet show her also as 

goddess of war 

count courage and temperance and love of country as 
enough virtue for men to possess, then you would have 
chosen Sparta as the noblest of all Greek states. Plu- 
tarch, an ancient Greek writer and a lover of Sparta, 
says: ''No man was at liberty to live as he pleased, the 
city being like one great camp where all had their stated 
allowance and knew their public charge, each man con- 
cluding that he was born, not for himself, but for his 
country, . . , [They thought] nothing more disagreeable 
than to live by (or for) themselves. Like bees, they acted 
with one impulse for the public good, and always assem- 
bled about their prince. They were possessed with a 
thirst of honor", an enthusiasm bordering upon insanity, 
and had not a wish but for their country." 



3S , THE ANCIENT WORLD 

But if you had wanted kind family love and a com- 
fortable home ; if you had wanted to go to good schools 
and get learning ; if you had wanted to live among beau- 
tiful things, and to meet travelers from distant lands ; if 
you had wanted to hear poets and philosophers talk and 
see artists at work, you would not have chosen Sparta. 

It might have been ^Egina, whose men were sailors 
and even pirates, some of them. It might have been 
Chalcis, the busy and prosperous city of bronze 
other workers, the mother of more than twenty 

colonies. Or you might have chosen Corinth, 
the famous merchant town, where ships were always 
going and coming, and foreign traders were walking the 
streets, where the best vases of Greece were made, and 
where great sculptors workea. 

Athens 

But probably you would have chosen Athens, the city 
of the greatest poets and architects and painters and 
sculptors in the world, and of famous orators and brave 
generals. Here, as in every Greek city, was an Acropo- 
lis, or hill, as the heart of the town. This in earlier 
times had been a fort, placed for safety where the steep 
hillsides were difficult for the enemy to climb. The 
town was clustered at the foot. But later a wall had 
been run around the whole city. Then the Acropolis, 
safe inside the wall, had become, not the fort, but the 
sacred place, where the most holy temples and statues 
were. 

It was a shining glory of marble. The Parthenon was 

there. It stood high above the city, clearly to be seen; 

and I think that Athenians must have lifted 

Acropolis . . . 

eager eyes to it early every morning. But it 
did not stand alone on the flat hilltop. Near it was 



WHAT GREECE HAD TO TEACH THE WORLD 39 



another temple of Athene, with deUcate carvings and 
a marvelous porch with maidens' figures for columns. 
Surrounding both the temples were statues of marble 
and bronze. The road that wound up the western end 






9'^^ 







4^p«w *^ 




The Acropolis of Athens 

of the hill near the top met a wide marble stairway, that 
climbed to broad porches before the bronze entrance 
doors of the sacred ground. 

Into the stony side of the Acropolis was cut a huge 
half circle, and marble benches were built here, tier above 
tier, until there was room to seat all the people of Athens, 
facing a stage and a dancing-circle. This was the theater, 
sacred to Dionysus, the god of the vineyard and of wine, 
god of joy and the dance. Once every year plays were 
held in his honor, and Athenians saw acted out old stories 
of their heroes and their gods. Leading from one of the 
theater doors was a street, lined on both sides with grace- 



40 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

ful little monuments of marble, topped with bronze 
tripods, won by the men who had given the best plays. 
And beautiful things those old plays are ; they have been 
read and studied and imitated by men of all times. 

The high-lifted buildings on the Acropolis were the 
chief beauty of Athens, but not its only one. There 

were scores of temples, small and large, scat- 
Sc nes tered through the city, no one of them so 

beautiful as the Parthenon, but all of them 
built on much the same plan and all of them lovely. 
Here and there along the streets were fountains — little 
streams of water falling into carved marble basins, where 
the maidservants came every morning early with vases 
on their heads, to get water for their households. 

The city wall stood high and broad with nine gates, 
where the citizens might go out and in. It was about 

five miles around. A man could walk from 

Wall 

end to end of the town in half an hour. Inside 
this small space was crowded a city of over a hundred 
and fifty thousand people. There was no room for 

lawns or parks. Houses were built close 

Streets 

together, and their fronts were on the very 
street. Those streets were narrow and unpaved and 
without sidewalks ; because the ground was hilly, they 
were crooked, winding about on the level places. 

The houses were uninteresting from the outside with 
their flat roofs and blank walls with only one great door. 
But the best of them must have been pleasant 
to live in ; for when the great door was passed, 
the home-comer walked down a short hall and came to 
a court open to the clear sky, with a fountain, perhaps, 
playing in the center. Before the entrance stood a 
little altar of Zeus, the protector of strangers, for all 
Greeks were hospitable, and liked to entertain guests. 





A Greek Lady and Her Slave 



These figures are carved on a Greek gravestone. The seated lady represents 
the one who is dead. She is examining her jewel box brought by the slave 



42 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

All about was a porch, and back of this opened shallow 
rooms with only draperies to shut them off. Many of 
these were guest rooms. 

Behind this court was another and larger one, with 
shrubs and perhaps a tree or two to make it green and 
cool. This one was sacred to the family, and visitors only 
rarely came here. There were pleasant porches about, 
where the women sat to spin and embroider. Children 
romped here, swinging, rolling hoops, playing knuckle- 
bones. Around this court, also, were airy rooms where 
the family lived and worked. Here, too, was an altar, 
this one to Hestia, goddess of the hearth and home ; and 
every morning she received loving sacrifice and prayer. 

These houses were pleasant and comfortable, but were 
not very large and not costly. Sometimes the walls 
were of rough stone, sometimes of sun-dried brick. There 
was little furniture ; and while it was beautiful, it was 
very simple, too, for the Athenians hated extravagance. 
"Nothing too much" was a common Greek motto. 
Moreover, an Athenian man spent much of his time in 
the public places of the city, and it was these that he felt 
should have care and money spent upon them to beautify 
them. 

The market-place was an open paved square in the 
center of the city. It was ornamented with statues, 
and about the sides were beautiful little marble 
'^^^ buildings where the officers of the city did 

place ^'^^i'' work, and in one of them was the city 

hearth, with its undying, holy fire. Along 
one side of the square was a covered walk, with columns 
supporting the roof. The back wall of this portico was 
painted with pictures from brave Athenian history. 
This ''Painted Porch," as it was called, was one of the 
favorite lounging places of Athens. 



WHAT GREECE HAD TO TEACH THE WORLD 43 

Meetings were sometimes held in this market-place; 
and on festival nights sacred dances were given here, 
and holy hymns sung. But the chief use of it was for 
buying and selling. Practically all the trading of the 
city was done here. Every forenoon it was the noisiest, 
busiest, most crowded place in Athens. Dozens of little 
tables cluttered the open square, some with awnings to 
shade them, all heaped with interesting produce. At 
every one stood a merchant, calling his wares, perhaps 
striking a gong to attract attention. And walking about 
from table to table were Athenian men, buying — fine 
gentlemen selecting food for the evening banquet, gay 
young fellows choosing perfume, serious millers and 
manufacturers inspecting samples of wheat and leather 
and wool. 

They could find there everything that was produced 
in the whole Mediterranean world — fresh fish from the 
Gulf sparkling three miles away, and salt fish from the 
Black Sea ; goat's meat and mutton, milk and cheese 
and butter, vegetables and fruits, wine and olive oil 
from the farms round about Athens ; wild honey from 
the mountains ; garlands of flowers from the meadows 
and river banks; shoes, hats, cloaks, vases, and bread 
from the shops of the city ; statuettes and jewelry from 
the artists' benches ; armor and swords and knives and 
pots from the forges of bronze and iron workers ; painted 
scrolls and fine linen and curious objects from Egypt ; 
medicines imported from the African colonies ; oint- 
ments and perfumes and boxes of sweet-smelling wood 
from Arabia ; carved ivory combs and brilliant rugs 
from distant India ; skins and leather from Scythia ; 
salt and dyestuffs from Spain ; tin from far-away Britain. 

How did all these things come to Athens? Three 
miles away was her port, Piraeus. The harbor shores 



44 -THE ANCIENT WORLD 

were lined with storehouses, not ugly things of red iron 
or dirty brick, but long, graceful buildings of white mar- 
ble, with stone steps leading into the water. 
Here the little Greek ships, with their square 
sails and their twenty or thirty oars, were going and com- 
ing continually. The marble docks were filled with slaves 
carrying goods on their backs, with captains giving or- 
ders, with merchants buying wheat, with money lenders 
giving little bags of clinking coin to ■ the outbound 
traders. And in the harbor, on guard, were long ships 
of war, with their three banks of oars and their sharp, 
bronze beak at the prow, ready to ram the enemy. 

The town of Piraeus had straight, broad streets and fine, 
marble houses — a spick and span new town, neater but 
less lovely than her mother, Athens. She, also, had a 
wall to protect her. The road that led to Athens had to 
be made safe ; otherwise, in time of war, an army might 
have camped between the two towns, have cut off Athens' 
supplies from the sea, and starved her people. So a high 
wall stretched straight on both sides of the road, making it 
like a giant's fenced lane. These '' Long Walls," as people 
called them, made one city of Piraeus and Athens. 

All these dignified temples, planted thickly through 
the city, these pleasant porticoes and graceful monu- 
ments and fountains along the streets, these statues 
that graced the Acropolis and the market and the 
temples, these theaters and gymnasiums and public 
groves, the orderliness and roominess and elegance of 
Piraeus, made Athens the most beautiful city in 
tr , the world. Visitors from every shore journeyed 

People . 

to her to enjoy her beauty. Young artists 
went there to work under her great painters and sculp- 
tors and architects. Poets and philosophers gathered 
there, because Athens appreciated and inspired them. 



WHAT GREECE HAD TO TEACH THE WORLD 



45 



Merchants and workmen from other states flocked to 
Athens, because there they could find work and a good 
Uving. It was a city not only beautiful but well-ruled, 
well-policed, prosperous, and happy. She was, as one 
of her own great men called her, "the school of Greece." 

Education 

The men who crowded the market-place and the docks 
were not ignorant sailors and traders. All but the very 
poorest of them had been to school from the time they 




ATHENS 

AND THE 
BAY OF SALAMIS 



Notice the " Long Walls " between Athens and Piraeus 

were seven until they were eighteen. Plato, an old Greek 
writer, says: ''[His parents] send the child to teachers, 
and enjoin them to see to his manners even more than 
to his reading and music ; and the teachers do as they 
are desired. And when the boy has learned his letters 
and is beginning to understand what is written, . . . they 
put into his hands the works of great poets, which he 
reads at school. In these are contained many admoni- 
tions and many tales and praises of ancient famous 



46 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



^ A 




School 



This and the next picture are painted on the inside of a shallow, round drinking 
cup. At the left a boy is learning to sing, while the teacher accompanies him 
on the double flute. In the middle a teacher is correcting a boy's exercise, 
written on a wax tablet. At the right a slave is waiting to take the boys home. 
On the wall hang a book or scroll, a wax tablet, a lyre, a drawing-square 

men, which he is required to learn by heart, in order 
that he may imitate them and desire to become Hke 
them. 

''Then again the teachers of the lyre take similar care 
that their young disciple is temperate and gets into no 
mischief. And when they have taught him the 
use of the lyre, they introduce him to the poems 
of other excellent poets, who are the lyric poets, and 
these they set to music, and make their harmonies and 
rhythms quite familiar to the children, in order that 
they may learn to be more gentle and harmonious and 
rhythmical, and so more fitted for speech and action; 
for the life of man in every part has need of harmony 
and rhythm. Theil they send them to the master of 
gymnastics, in order that their bodies may better minister 
to the virtuous mind, and that the weakness of their, 
bodies may not force them to play the coward in war, or 
on any other occasion." 

After the boy was eighteen, perhaps he joined a phi- 



WHAT GREECE HAD TO TEACH THE WORLD 47 




At the left a boy is learning to play the lyre. In the middle a boy is reciting 
while the teacher holds the scroll. A slave waits. On the wall are two drink- 
ing cups, two lyres, a lunch basket, and a flute 



losopher's class and studied about more difficult things 
— geometry, astronomy, religion, science, rhet- . 
oric. These classes were not held in buildings, 
as our college classes are, but in the shelter of the porch 
of the gymnasium, or in the covered walk beside the 
market-place, or under the trees in the park. Nor did 
the students sit at desks with pads and pencils, but in 
friendly fashion on benches or on the floor of the porch, 
or they strolled up and down the walks, while the master 
talked. Grown men, too, often listened to the class and 
entered into the discussion. 

Some of the things they discussed were great scien- 
tific problems ; and the decisions they came to guided 
men's thinking for hundreds of years and en- 
lightened the minds of people all over the world. 
They talked of the stars and the sun and the moon. They 
discussed the causes of ecUpses and of the change in the 
length of day. Some of them believed that the earth 
and the planets revolve about the sun, and that it is the 
sun that Ughts the moon. They knew that the earth is 



Learning 



48 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



a sphere, and they considered how to divide it by merid- 
ians of longitude and parallels of latitude, and so to 

determine locations of places. 
They studied geometry, as 
we now study it in our high 
schools and colleges, draw- 
ing figures, finding the areas 
of squares and circles and 
triangles, and the contents 
of cubes and spheres and 
cylinders. They discussed 
what the earth is made of, 
and what existed before the 
earth, and how man and the 
animals were created. They 
speculated about whether or 
not the soul is immortal, 
about what makes beauty 
and ugliness, about what 
light is, and how sound 
is caused. And a hundred 
other things they discussed, 
which our astronomers and 
geometers and scientists and 
philosophers are still dis- 
cussing. 

One of the greatest of 
these teachers was Socrates. 
He was a poor 
man, a stonecutter 
by trade. Yet he devoted 
his life to the good of his fellow citizens. Xenophon, 
one of his friends, in writing about him says: "He was 
constantly in pubhc ; for he went in the morning to the 




SoCiiATES 

His name and one of his sayings are 
carved in Greek letters on the marble 



Socrates 



WHAT GREECE HAD TO TEACH THE WORLD 49 

places for walking, and to the gymnasiums ; at the time 
when the market was full, he was to be seen there ; and 
the rest of the day he was where he was likely to meet 
the greatest number of people ; he was generally engaged 
in discourse, and all who pleased were at liberty to hear 
him." Young men, especially, flocked around him to 
listen and to learn wisdom ; yet he never took classes 
for money, because he thought he was not wise enough 
to teach. 

His purpose in thus going about the city and talking 
with all men, high and low, he himself explained. "While 
I have life and strength I shall never cease from the 
practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting any one 
whom I meet after my manner, . . . saying : ' my friend, 
why do you, who are a citizen of the great and mighty 
and wise city of Athens, care so much about laying up 
the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, 
and so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest 
improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed 
at all? Are you not ashamed of this?'" 

As we look back at Socrates now, we see that he lived 
a wonderfully pure, unselfish, and useful life, and many 
of his fellow Athenians thought so, too. Xenophon says : 
''Of those who knew what sort of man Socrates was, 
such as were lovers of virtue continue to regret him 
above all other men, even to the present day, as having 
contributed in the highest degree to their advancement in 
goodness. To me, being such as I have described him, 
so pious that he did nothing without sanction of the gods ; 
so just that he wronged no man, even in the most trifling 
affair, but was of service in the most important matters 
to those who enjoyed his society; so temperate that he 
never preferred pleasure to virtue ; so wise that he never 
erred in distinguishing better from worse, needing no 



5b THE ANCIENT WORLD 

counsel from others, but being sufficient in himself to 
discriminate between them ; so able to explain and settle 
such questions by argument; and so capable of discern- 
ing the character of others, of confuting those who were 
in error, and of exhorting them to virtue and honor, he 
seemed to be such as the best and happiest of men would 
be." 

Yet he made many enemies. When he reproached a 
man with being dishonest and proved another one un- 
duly conceited or showed the selfishness of a third, these 
people sometimes, instead of being thankful to Socrates 
for making their faults known to them and instead of 
trying to reform, grew angry and hated him. And when 
vain people are angry, they are likely to say all kinds of 
false things. 

Finally this charge was made against Socrates: "Soc- 
rates offends against the laws in not paying respect to 
those gods whom the city respects and in intro- 
^ ' " ducing other new deities; he also offends 
against the laws in corrupting the youth." He was tried 
in court, and in spite of all his friends could do and in 
spite of his good and noble life he was sentenced to death. 
He died bravely, even smilingly, and without a murmur 
at the injustice of his fellow citizens, refusing to let his 
friends buy his pardon or bribe the prison guards to allow 
his escape, because he thought such things were dis- 
honorable. 

Nor did he fear death, but rather welcomed it. "Let 
a man be of good cheer about his soul," he said, "who has 
cast away the pleasures and ornaments of the body as 
alien to him, . . . and has followed after the pleasures of 
knowledge in this life ; who has adorned the soul in her 
own proper jewels, which are temperance and justice 
and courage and nobihty and truth — in these arrayed 



WHAT GREECE HAD TO TEACH THE WORLD 51 

she is ready to go on her journey to the world below when 

her time comes." 

Government 

Such an education as the Athenians received and such 
busy and interesting lives as they led made freedom-loving 
men. They had early done away with kings, and ruled 
themselves. On the Pnyx hill in Athens was arranged 
an open-air meeting place with a platform for speakers. 
Here, about four times every month, came all the free- 
men of Athens, rich and poor, to elect their officers, to 
make their laws, to levy taxes, to decide on matters of 
war and commerce and building. 

The government was what we call a democracy, not a 
republic like ours. We elect men to do our country's 
business for us ; in Athens every citizen directly 
voted on all questions. Such a thing is not pos- 
sible except in a small state: in all Attica (the state ruled 
by Athens) there were not more than 50,000 voters. 

Pericles, one of the greatest of Athenians, spoke of his 
city's government much as follows: "It is called a de- 
mocracy because it is carried on for the benefit not of 
the few but of the many. Before its laws all men enjoy 
equality in the matter of their private affairs ; while, in 
regard to public rank, every man is given office accord- 
ing to his merit. No man is prevented by poverty or 
obscurity from doing the state any good service of which 
he is capable." Any Athenian freeman might hold any 
office of his country, just as in America. Indeed, the 
Athenians went one step further in their desire to give 
every man a chance to work for the state : some officers 
they chose by lot. 

Yet two faults prevented this government from being 
the perfect thing that it seems. One was this : no for- 
eigner might ever get the right to vote, not though he 



52 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

lived and worked in Athens for many years ; nor might 
his sons or grandsons after him become Athenian citizens. 
And ''foreigners" to Athenians meant not only Persians 
and Egyptians but men from any other state than Attica, 
even Spartans and Thebans. Another great fault was 
this : there were more slaves in the country than freemen, 
and they, of course, had no voice in making laws or in 
planning their lives. Freedom of all men and the right 
of all men to vote did not come in any country for many 
hundred years. 

While Athens had a democracy, other Greek cities had 
different forms of government. There were kings in some 

states. In others there were tyrants, or men 
Forms ^^^ ^^^ ^^® power into their own hands and 

ruled until a rebellion or some turn of affairs 
expelled them. Sometimes a small number of people from 
old, noble families or from rich families controlled the 
city. And in most of the states the government fre- 
quently changed, as people became dissatisfied. All of 
them began with kings, even as Athens did ; most of them 
at one time or another were seized by tyrants ; and many 
of them tried a democracy for a longer or a shorter time. 
Every Greek had an interest in government and a 
sense of freedom that no other ancient people felt, except 
the Romans. And because of this freedom and the love 
of it these little quarrelsome states did many brave and 
notable things, and the bravest work of all, I think, was 
the Persian war. 



1. Make a cardboard model of a Greek house. (Plan on page 
36, Gardner and Jevons, Manual of Greek Antiquities.) 2. Look 
at the buildings around you and see whether any of them have copied 
anything Greek. 3. Are there any places in your neighborhood that 
the Athenians would have beautified ? 4. What things were necessary 
to make a person an Athenian citizen ? What is necessary in America ? 




Persian Soldiers 

At the sides are common foot-soldiers. One car- 
ries a bow over his shoulder, the other has his in 
a case at his side. The two central figures are 
men of the king's guard with the head-dress of 
nobles. Notice the bow and quiver at the back 
of the one on the left 



CHAPTER III 



GREECE AND HER NEIGHBORS 

The Persian War 

By 490 B.C. Persia, over in Asia, had become the 
greatest country in the world — the richest and the 
largest, stretching from India to the African desert. 
She had conquered Egypt, old Babylonia and Assyria, 
Phoenicia, Palestine, a score of old and new nations, and 
all the Greek cities in Asia Minor and Thrace. In fact 
she had conquered all the eastern world except Greece. 
Of course she was not willing to allow an exception. 

Now Greece was only a Uttle spot compared with the 
great empire of Persia, so when the king sent messengers 
to the cities of this Httle country, asking them for earth 
and water as a sign that they recognized him as master 
of all lands and lord of all the seas, he thought that surely 
they would send it, out of fear. And some of them, to 
their shame, did it ; but the Athenians threw the messen- 

53 



54 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



gers over a cliff as they did their criminals, and the Spar- 
tans threw them into a well, saying, "Take earth and 
water from there." Then King Darius in wrath sent a 
great fleet across, and the ships of that fleet the con- 
quered Phoenicians and the conquered Greeks of Asia 




Compare the size of Greece with the size of Persia 

Minor had to supply ; for Persia was an inland country 
and had no boats. 

When that great fleet landed in Attica, there was only 
a little army of Athenians with a few of their good friends, 
the Platseans, to meet them ; for, as usual, the 
other states were jealous and distrustful of one 
another or thought that there was no hurry. 
But in the face of this Asiatic host that was 
perhaps three times its number the little army waited 
until a favorable moment, when the Persians were off 
their guard. Then the Greeks charged at the run, 
pushing the enemy into the water, slew more than 
6000 of them, burned some of their ships, and sent 
them back to Persia beaten. 

This was the battle of Marathon, which for hun- 



Battle of 
Marathon 
490 B.C. 



GREECE AND HER NEIGHBORS 



55 



dreds of years the Athenians celebrated as their bravest 
victory. "They first endured the sight of the Medic garb 
and the men that 
wore it," Herod- 
otus says of 
the warriors of 
Marathon ;" but 
until that time 
the very name of 
the Medes [or 
Persians] was a 
terror to the 
Greeks." 

The Persian 
king was eager 
for revenge for 
this defeat, but 
other wars 
busied him for 
a time ; and 
then he died. 
The installing of 

the new king, Xerxes, still further delayed vengeance, so 
that there were ten years of waiting. And marvelous 
use the Athenians made of that time under 
the advice of Themistocles, one of the ablest 
citizens Athens ever had. Plutarch, an old 
Greek writer, says, ''While others imagined 
the defeat of the Persians at Marathon had put an end to 
the war, [Themistocles] considered it as the beginning of 
greater conflicts ; and for the general benefit of Greece he 
was preparing himself and the Athenians against those 
conflicts, because he foresaw them at a distance." 

He knew that the Persians would come by sea. There- 




A Persian King 

As a Greek vase-painter drew him, showing the East- 
ern gorgeousness 



Work of 
Themis- 
tocles 



56 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



fore he urged the Athenians to build ships of war; for 
up to that time they had fought Uttle on water. He per- 
suaded, pleaded, threatened, talked in the street, in the 
market, in the barber shops, at banquets, in the public 
assembly, until he succeeded in getting the Athenians to 
make a port at Piraeus and to build 200 ships. 

Then the Persians descended upon them again with a 
great army moving down the coasts and a thousand 
vessels sailing beside it. Nothing could stop Xerxes, the 
Great King. He built a bridge of boats across the Helles- 
pont and cut a canal through a rocky 
neck of land, that his ships might avoid 
a stormy headland. Millions of men he 
had, it was said, drawn from all the na- 
tions of the Persian empire — Scythians 
and barbarians from the North, Arabs and 
Egyptians and savage African tribes from 
the South, the polished Greeks of Asia 
Minor, Phoenician sailors, Assyrians, even 
men from India, the edge of the world. 
The very names of them all would take 
a half page of print. 

They were clothed in all manner of 
costume — in the skins of panthers and 
lions and foxes, in leather armor, in helmets of horses' 
skulls, in long white cotton garments, in brilliant silk. 
They carried all manner of weapons — spears tipped with 
bronze or with antelope horn, bows of cane and palm 
and ash, curved scimitars, knotted clubs, shields of wood 
or rawhide or crane's skin or bronze. It was a strange 
medley of nations, like a circus. Among them were fierce 
barbarian warriors and the well-trained, brave band of 
Persian soldiers that were the king's guard. They spread 
terror as they came. 




Persian Foot- 
soldier 



GREECE AND HER NEIGHBORS 



57 



For once the Greeks realized that they must give over 
their petty jealousies and unite. Yet they were not ready 
when the great army swept down to the narrow guttle of 
pass of Thermopylae at the north of Greece. Ther- 
Then the Spartans showed the results of their mopyiae, 
lifelong training. Three hundred of them were 4 o • • 
there under their brave king, Leonidas. With about 4000 
to help them, they held the pass for 
six days against that mighty army. 

Up to the time of fighting, the 
Spartans amused themselves in play- 
ing games and singing songs ; for 
war was their sport. They laughed 
at the news about the number of the 
enemy. Rumor said that it made 
cities poor to feed that great army ; 
that the hosts drank rivers dry; 
that when they shot their arrows, 
the sun was hidden. ''So much the 
better," laughed the Spartans, ''we 
shall fight in the shade." On the 
last day most of the troops returned 
home. But the 300 Spartans, with 700 brave men to help 
them, even though they knew there was no hope of 
winning, stood their ground against the mighty host and 
died fighting, Leonidas and every Spartan but one. After 
that brave but useless battle the great Persian host 
flooded on into middle Greece. 

Then Themistocles had the hardest work of his life to 
do — to drag the Athenians out of their city 
and aboard ship. For he reaUzed that they ^^tt^e of 
could not hold Athens, that the Persians would ^g^ ^q 
camp about it and starve them out, that the 
Greeks' only hope was in their fleet. He accomplished 




Noble Persian Guard 
Carrying bow and quiver 



58 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 




his purpose at last, and the Persians 
camped in the empty city and burned 
it. But the Greeks were ready for 
them on the sea, and while the Great 
King and his army sat on the shore 
to watch, in the bay of Salamis they 
met the Persian fleet of four times 
their number. In " The Persians," 
an old Greek play by ^schylus, a 
Persian messenger tells the story of 
the fight : 

"Then the fierce trumpet's voice 
Blazed o'er the main ; and on the salt sea 

flood 
Forthwith the oars, with measured plash, 

descended, 
And all their lines, with dexterous speed 

displayed, 
Stood with opposing front. The right 

wing first, 
Then the whole fleet bore down, and 

straight uprose 
A mighty shout. 'Sons of the Greeks, 

advance ! 
Your country free, your children free, 

your wives ! 
The altars of your native gods deliver. 
And your ancestral tombs — all's now at 

stake ! ' 
A like salute from our whole line back- 
rolled 
Soldier of Marathon 

A Greek gravestone. The man wears bronze greaves and body armor, with 
an undergarment of cloth or leather to keep the bronze from the skin. Gener- 
ally the helmet covered the ears, cheeks, and nose, and the soldier carried a 
shield and wore a sword 




GREECE AND HER NEIGHBORS 59 

In Persian speech. No more delay, but straight 

Trireme on trireme, brazen beak on beak 

Dashed furious. A Greek ship led on the attack. 

And from the prow of a Phoenician struck 

The figure-head ; and now the grapple closed 

Of each ship with his adverse desperate. 

At first the main line of the Persian fleet 

Stood the harsh shock ; but soon their multitude 

Became their ruin ; in the narrow firth 

They might not use their strength, and, jammed together, 

Their ships with brazen beaks did bite each other. 

And shattered their own oars. Meanwhile the Greeks 

Stroke after stroke dealt dexterous all around. 

Till our ships showed their keels, and the blue sea 

Was seen no more, with multitude of ships 

And corpses covered. All the shores were strewn, 

And the rough rocks, with dead ; till, in the end, 

Each ship in the barbaric host that yet 

Had oars, in most disordered flight rowed off." 

After that, in the spring, the Greeks beat the Persians 
once more in the long and bloody battle of Plataea. 
" Of an army of 300,000 men," . . . Herodotus says, " not 
3000 survived." The Persian invasion of Greece was 
ended for good and all. The Athenians returned to their 
ruined town and began to rebuild it into that beautiful 
city that was the wonder of the world. 

The Delian Confederacy 

When the war was over, many of the states of Greece 
looked to Athens as the queen of the sea and the savior 
of the Greeks. A great league of friendly states, called the 
Delian Confederacy, was formed, with Athens at the head. 
The league was sworn to protect Greece from Persia. 

Then Pericles, the Athenian, had a great dream. He 
saw his city as the head of a noble Greek empire. 



6o THE ANCIENT WORLD 

The business of Athens should be to direct this empire, 
to keep peace, to see justice done, to build and train and 
operate a strong navy that should be the protector of the 
empire. Under this peace every state might go on freely 
with its work of commerce and manufacturing, with its arts 
and its education. The governments of the states were 
to be democratic, hke the government of Athens. And 
Athens, through her beauty and her learning, through the 
freedom and wisdom and large-mindedness of her citizens, 
was to be worthy of her high place as head of this empire. 
The dream was partly reahzed. Pericles' wisdom 
brought it about. For thirty years his great mind planned 
all Athens' actions. He tied the empire to- 

Pericles 

gether with the swift-moving fleet. He col- 
lected dues and planned the spending of the money. He 
set artists and builders to work to beautify Athens and 
Piraeus. During his thirty years of service Athens 
became more democratic and more patriotic, better edu- 
cated, more beautiful, more prosperous. At the same 
time Athenian learning and art and law and manner of 
governing spread through half of Greece. Wealth, com- 
merce, comfort, increased throughout the league. The 
Delian Confederacy was the noblest government the 
world had thus far seen. 

Pericles was not the king or tyrant of this empire. 
For thirty years the citizens of democratic Athens, recog- 
nizing his greatness, elected him first to one office and 
then to another, and, whatever post he held, they generally 
followed his advice. 

Thucydides, an Athenian historian of the time, says 
that Pericles, " being powerful because of his high rank 
and talents and being manifestly proof against bribery, 
controlled the multitude with an independent spirit and 
was not led by them so much as he himself led them. 



GREECE AND HER NEIGHBORS 6i 

For he did not say anything to humor them; but he was able 
on the strength of his character to contradict them even 
at the risk of their displeasure. Whenever, for instance, 
he perceived them unreasonably and insolently confident, 
by his language he would dash them down to alarm. 
And, on the other hand, when they were unreasonably 
alarmed, he would raise them again to confi- 
dence." This time, the time of the greatest g q 
glory of Greece, is called "The Age of Peri- 
cles," because he was the great directing mind of the 
period. 

But even inside the Delian Confederacy the old jealousy 
was at work ; and, outside it, Sparta and her friends were 
eaten with envy. As soon as the danger from 
Persia was over, the old quarrels began again, jg^iousy 
For twenty-seven years there was almost con- 
tinuous warfare between Sparta and her allies on one side 
and Athens and hers on the other. The whole Greek 
world from the ^Egean islands to Magna Grsecia was 
dragged into it. There was terrible slaughter of men and 
ruin of cities. An Athenian army of 40,000 was almost 
entirely wiped out in Sicily. Sparta captured 160 of 
Athens' ships and sentenced 3000 prisoners to death. 

Beaten on land and sea, cooped up and starving at 
home, the Athenians were forced to tear down the walls 
of Piraeus and the long walls that stretched from 
port to city, to be content with only twelve ^^^ ^'^^ 
ships of war, and to obey the commands of 
Sparta. Then for thirty-three years Sparta ruled Greece 
with stubborn selfishness and cruelty. First one city 
and then another revolted and had to endure bitter 
punishment, until Thebes rose up and took vengeance 
upon the punisher, humbled Sparta, and devastated her 
land. 



62 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

Macedon Conquers the World 

Meanwhile, north of Greece, Macedon had been grow- 
ing strong. Greek colonies on the coast and occasional 

Greek immigrants who traveled inland had 

gradually spread Greek education there. The 
kings of one tribe, especially, became thoroughly Hel- 
lenized. They traveled in Greece, spoke Greek, enter- 
tained Greek poets and artists and teachers at their 
court, and even took part in the Olympic games. 

PhiUp, one of these kings, conquered the other six tribes 
of Macedon, held them firmly in his hand, made himself 
their beloved hero, and built up a marvelous army. 
With this well-trained army he conquered Greece when 
all her small states were quarreling among themselves. 
But he interfered little with their government, and in- 
vited rather than commanded them to help him in his 
great plan of humbling Persia. For though the Greeks 
had beaten her on their own ground and had driven 
her out of their country, yet she was still the proud mis- 
tress of Asia and often interfered in Greek affairs. 

Philip was killed before he could carry out his plan, 
and his son Alexander inherited the kingship of this 

young Macedon, inherited Philip's strong and 
, ®f*^ loyal army and his ambition to conquer Asia. 

In 334 B.C., when he was only twenty- two years 
old, with a well-knit little army of 35,000 men, Alexander 
set out to master an empire fifty times as large as his own 
country — an empire whose king had more gold in one 
treasure house than was in all Macedon together and 
servants in one palace more numerous than Alexander's 
whole army. 

The history of the next eleven years reads like a tale 
from the "Arabian Nights." Alexander fought against 



GREECE AND HER NEIGHBORS 63 

twenty times his number and never once lost. There 
were battles where the enemy rode on elephants and 
drove in chariots with scythes on the wheels to cut men 
down. Macedonian troops forded rivers and climbed 
slippery banks in the very face of the foe and yet won. 
About a great walled town they built a hill of earth two 
hundred and fifty feet high, that they might fight from it. 

Alexander conquered cities so old that their age seemed 
like a fable and so rich that Greece appeared a beggar 
before them. He captured treasures of a hundred million 
dollars and the Great King's tent with its basins and 
bath of gold and its scented water and its perfumed air. 
He gave banquets where nine thousand people sat down 
to table, and every one received a gold drinking cup as a 
gift. He sent a party to explore the great river Indus, 
which probably no Greek had ever seen before. 

The army climbed over a snowy mountain pass more 
than 13,000 feet high. For sixty days they traveled 
through a desert that was the hottest place on earth, 
where three-fourths of the division died of thirst and 
hunger and fatigue. At one time a wound brought the 
young conqueror near to death off at the world's end. 

There were passionate quarrels between the king and 
his army that ended in tears and embraces. And always 
the battles brought victory, until Alexander was master 
of the largest empire that had ever existed, and the whole 
civilized world was ringing with his fame. 

Aside from the marvelous things he had done, Alex- 
ander himself was a hero to stir men's hearts. No one 
could have been braver. He always rode in the 
very front of the troops in brilliant armor and Tj^^if^'^ 
with white feathers in his helmet, so that no eye 
could miss him. He was afraid to go nowhere. Once 
when he was besieging a city and was scaling the wall, 



64 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



the ladder broke below him. Instead of leaping back 
among his army, he leaped forward into the city with 
only three men to help him. 

Being brave and straightforward himself, he liked 
these qualities in other men. Plutarch tells of his send- 
ing a gift to a far city in Italy because of a brave deed 
of one of her citizens done years before. And after 
having conquered a certain king who had made a 
brave fight, ''Alexander asked him," Plutarch says, 



'{(tS' 



ff-.-t 







Compare with the map ol tue Persiau eiupiie, page 54 



"how he desired to be treated. He answered, 'Like 
a king.' 'And have you nothing else to request?' re- 
plied Alexander. 'No,' said he; 'everything is com- 
prehended in the word king.' Alexander [being pleased 
with the answer] not only restored him his own do- 
minions immediately, which he was to govern as his 
lieutenant, but added very extensive territories to 
them." 

Plutarch reports that one of the conquered Persians 
once said, "Alexander is as mild in the use of his vic- 
tories as he is terrible in battle." And he goes on to tell 



GREECE AND HER NEIGHBORS 65 

how the Persian queen and her daughters were treated 
when they were captured after a certain battle. Alex- 
ander sent word to them 'Hhat they had nothing to fear 
from Alexander, for his dispute with Darius [the Persian 
king] was only for empire and that they should find 
themselves provided for in the same manner as when 
Darius was in his greatest prosperity. . . . They [were, 
indeed, given] as many domestics and were served in 
all respects in as honorable a manner as before. . . . 
Though they were now captives he considered that they 
were ladies, not only of high rank, but of great modesty 
and virtue. ... As if they had been in a holy temple, 
rather than in an enemy's camp, they lived unseen and 
unapproached in the most sacred privacy." ' 

Having captured so many cities and cities so rich, he 
had a great mass of spoil ; but he seemed to have no love 
for wealth except to use it. He was continually making 
gifts to any who he thought deserved them. At one 
time he gave a great banquet for the Macedonians who 
had married Persian wives and ''he paid off all their 
debts," says Plutarch. Wlien his soldiers became 
wounded or ill or worn-out in his service, he sent them 
home with rich presents. Indeed, he was so lavish with 
gifts that his mother reproved him, saying that he would 
make kings of all his friends. 

In spite of the magnificence of the Persian life that he 
was taking part in, he seems himself to have preferred 
simplicity. Plutarch says: ''He found that his great 
officers set no bounds to their luxury, that they were 
most extravagantly delicate in their diet and profuse in 
other respects ; insomuch that one had silver nails in his 
shoes, another had many camel-loads of earth brought 
from Egypt to rub himself with when he went to the 
wrestling ring; . . . more made use of rich perfumes 




[66] 



GREECE AND HER NEIGHBORS 67 

than oil after bathing and had their grooms of the bath 
as well as chamberlains who excelled in bed-making. 

''This degeneracy he reproved with all the temper of a 
philosopher. He told them, it was very strange to him 
that, after having undergone so many glorious conflicts, 
they did not remember that those who come from labor 
and exercise always sleep more sweetly than the inac- 
tive and effeminate ; and that in comparing the Persian 
manners with the Macedonian, they did not perceive 
that nothing was more servile than the love of pleasure 
or more princely than a life of toil. 'How will that man,' 
continued he, 'take care of his own horse, or furbish his 
lance and helmet, whose hands are too delicate to wait 
on his own person? Know you not that the end of con- 
quest is, not to do what the conquered have done, but 
something greatly superior?'" 

Yet with all his virtues Alexander had faults. He was 
boastful and liked to hear himself praised, becoming 
angry at those who did not do homage to him. He 
occasionally lost control of his temper and did savage 
things, once even killing a friend in a fit of anger. After- 
wards he repented most bitterly and in tears and tried 
to take his own life ; for he had a hot disposition that 
rushed to extremes. Moreover, he was very supersti- 
tious and always had soothsayers and prophets about 
him to interpret dreams and omens, as did many men of 
his time. 

But you must not think that Alexander was an ignorant 
soldier. He had been educated by the Greek Aristotle, 
one of the greatest philosophers of the world, and he had 
been an apt pupil. Even during his campaigns he had 
books sent to him and read them eagerly. He welcomed 
philosophers and poets and knew what was going on in 
the learned world. Plutarch says, "He loved polite 



68 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

learning, and his natural thirst for knowledge made him 
a man of extensive reading." He had great love and ad- 
miration for the "Iliad," the old Greek poem that tells 
the story of the Trojan war, and ''used to lay it under his 
pillow with his sword." Moreover, he had studied medi- 
cine and sometimes prescribed for his friends. Indeed, 
he had a strong interest in all kinds of knowledge. 

But what did it all amount to, this march of thousands 
of miles, these eleven years of clever fighting, this con- 
quest of the world? He himself had a purpose 
Effects of ^^ ^jjg ^^j. jjg wanted to unite Europe and 

quests Asia. Other Greeks had a great scorn of every- 
thing not Greek. Now, no one could love 
Greek manners and ways of thinking better than Alex- 
ander did. That was one reason, doubtless, for his want- 
ing to unite Greece to the rest of the world, that he might 
spread Greek education. 

Indeed, he seemed to carry seeds of Greek culture with 
him and to plant them wherever possible. Everywhere 
he built altars to Greek gods and sacrificed to them. He 
held Greek games and gave Greek plays among the 
Persians. He had 30,000 Persian boys educated by Greek 
masters. All through the East he built seventy cities on 
the Greek plan and left Greek and Macedonian settlers 
in them. 

Besides admiring the Greeks, he was interested in all 
people, felt a respect for different civilizations, and was 
eager to learn from them all. He adopted the Persian 
dress, married two Persian princesses, and encouraged 
his soldiers to take Persian wives. He sometimes made 
a conquered Persian the governor of a province. 

Thus in many ways he tried to unify his conquered 
world, and he largely succeeded. The fact that so many 
countries were under one head and were at peace, the 



GREECE AND HER NEIGHBORS 69 

fact that a Greek army had penetrated into Asia and 
had wound its way from city to city there, was Uke open- 
ing closed doors. Travel and trade increased ; and 
where travelers and traders go, settlers follow, and so do 
manners and customs. 

Although Alexander died in Persia before he had 
finished his work, and although after him there was no 
man strong enough to hold this great empire together, 
yet the doors stayed open, and Greek settlers and ideas 
and culture went all over the world. Countries grew up 
in Asia as Greek as Athens had ever been, having cities 
like her, filled with temples and theaters and statues, 
and famous for sculptors and painters and writers. 

In Egypt, far from Greece herself, was a city that was 
the very center of Greek learning and Greek influence. 
This was Alexandria, one of the towns which the great 
conqueror had founded. There were two great 
libraries here that at one time contained 700,000 
books, all written by hand on rolls of papyrus. There 
was a famous museum ''where scholars lived and 
worked together." There was a group of buildings — a 
" temple of the Muses [the goddesses of learning and the 
arts], library, porticoes, dwellings, and ... a hall for the 
meals, which were taken together. Its inmates were a 
community of scholars and poets, on whom the king be- 
stowed the honor and the privilege of being allowed to. 
work at his expense, and with all imaginable assistance 
ready to hand." 

Many valuable things they found out through their 
study. The greatest geographers of ancient times worked 
there. They knew that the earth is a sphere, and they 
invented ways of measuring and mapping it. Eratosthe- 
nes figured out its circumference as 28,000 miles — not a 
very great mistake for the first worker. An astronomical 



70 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

observatory was there ; men studied the stars and tried 
to find the size of the sun and the moon, and their dis- 
tances from the earth. EucUd, the greatest geometrician 
of ancient times, did his work there and wrote a geometry 
that is still used in some of our schools. 

What was found out in Alexandria was soon known all 
through the Mediterranean countries.^ This was the 
effect of Alexander's conquests. He had Hellenized the 
ancient world. It was left for another nation to enlarge 
that world, to spread that culture through our Spain, 
France, Germany, England, and the rest of Europe. 

Greek Influence on Civilization 

The debt that we owe to the Greeks we can hardly 
state in words. We still read their poetry with joy, and 
many an Enghsh poet has some ancient Greek singer to 
thank for inspiration. Never a year passes, I suppose, 
that some one in America does not stage one of the old 
Greek plays. Some of the most precious things in the 
museums of Europe are the Greek statues that they 
have been able to get. People who love beautiful things 
travel for thousands of miles to see and enjoy them. Art 
students sketch them and model them in clay. Sculptors 
study them to learn the secrets of those earlier workers 
in marble and bronze. 

1 There was a fault in the way the Greek scientist worked. If he saw some- 
thing that interested him — a falling star or a flash of lightning — he said, "I 
must make a theory about that." So, folding his hands and shutting his eyes, 
he thought long and earnestly and invented an explanation that seemed to him 
reasonable. A modern scientist, on the other hand, when he sees a thing he 
does not understand says, " I must investigate that." Then he begins to visit 
strange places, to collect many specimens, to tear things to pieces and to 
put them together, to use acids and machines and microscope and scales. 
Slowly he pieces his theory together as his investigations tell him this or that, 
and he is always ready to give it up if some new experiment proves it false. 
Our science is better than the Greek science, then, because people have been 
living and learning for 2000 years and at last have come to realize the great 
value of experiment. 



GREECE AND HER NEIGHBORS 71 

The same thing happens with Greek buildings. Archi- 
tects measure their length and their width and their 
height, the proportion of their columns, the pitch of their 
roof. There lies on the Acropolis of Athens the broken 
capital of a column with a beautiful spiral carved upon it. 
In the center of the spiral is a little hole that has been 
worn by the dividers of visiting architects who have 
measured it to learn how it was made that it should be so 
beautiful. These men have gone home to draw, to ex- 




Copyright by J. F. Olsson and Company 

The Harvard University Stadium 

periment, to copy the curves, the proportions, and even 
the designs that they have found in Greek temples. If 
you look at the buildings about you, you may see here in 
America Greek columns or Greek pediments or Greek 
ornaments. 

On many of our athletic fields to-day you will see 
stadiums copied after the old Greek ones, and in them 
you will see young men playing games much as men 
played in ancient Greece. When we study grammar, we 
are studying ideas originated by the learned men of Alex- 
andria. In our science classes, where we investigate the 
actions of screws and levers and the weights of bodies 



72 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

and even electricity, we are studying subjects which the 
Greeks started for us. Half the books we read are full of 
„ ^ ^ Greek stories or fancies 

Russian German IIiNglish 

A S» A ^^ ideas. Great men, 

B «8 B ^^^ think about man's 

B g C li^® ^^^ ^ow he ought to 

^ ^ D act, get inspiration from 

g @ E one or another of the 

}K i5 F Greek philosophers. 

3 dJ G And I should think that 

^ H every time a mathema- 
I -^ I . . . , 

K ^ , tician measures triangles 

■^ @ K ^^^ circles and cones, 

M 2 L every time an astrono- 

O 9Jt M ^er studies the move- 

n gfj N ments of the earth, every 

Poo time a sculptor lifts his 

.p ^5 P chisel and mallet, every 

y ^ Q time an architect plans 

^ -^ a building or a poet 

tS ^ makes a play, he must 

tj .J ^ remember the Greeks, 

in jg y the pioneers of learning. 

^ 2S W C)ne other example out 

jjj 3f X of the many will show 

b ?) Y how the Greeks taught 

"^ S Z us, how we have profited 

TQ by the lesson, have 

H changed the matter a 

O little, and have half for- 

gotten that we did not 

always know it. Look 

at the Greek alphabet and then at ours. ''How funny it 

is," you will say, ''not at all like the English ! " Yet ours 



BEEK 


Latin 


A 


A 


B 


B 


r 


C 


A 


D 


E 


E 


z 


F 


H 


G 




H 









I 


I 


K 


K 


L 


A 


M 


M 


N 


N. 





S 


P 





Q 


n 


R 


p 


S 


2 


T 


T 


V(U) 


Y 


X 


* 


z 


X 




* 




Q 





GREECE AND HER NEIGHBORS 73 

is an imperfect copy of the Greek through the Roman. 
Some letters we have dropped, because the sounds that 
they represent do not occur in our language, and other 
letters we have simplified in form during our hundreds of 
years of use. It was the Romans who found the tribes of 
Europe without a written language and taught them their 
own letters. But theirs they had learned from the Greeks 
in that early time when the Greeks had gone colonizing 
into the West, as the Greeks had earlier learned theirs from 
the Phoenicians. 

So all the alphabets of Europe are children of one 
family. We must thank the Romans and their teachers, 
the Greeks, and the Phoenicians before them for that mar- 
velous power of looking on a page of little scratches 
and so hearing the words that men spoke hundreds 
of years ago and seeing the things that they did, and 
for that power of making records of the deeds and dis- 
coveries and thoughts of our own time that future gener- 
ations may profit by our work. 



1. Pretend that you are Athenians and hold a meeting to discuss 
whether you will send earth and water to the Persian king. 2. Make 
as long a list as you can of famous Greek men, statues, cities. 3. Look 
up the following words in a large dictionary and see what language they 
come from and what they meant in that language : alphabet, astron- 
omy, biography, Bible, chronology, geology, geometry, geography, 
history, poet, science, zoology. 4. You can get for a penny apiece 
good pictures of Greek statues and temples and landscape from the 
Thompson Art Publication Company, Syracuse, N.Y. Make a collec- 
tion of pictures and mount them in a book. 5. Use the Greek alphabet 
to write a secret letter. Try to invent an alphabet unUke any that 
you ever saw. 



CHAPTER IV 

ROME GROWS STRONG 
Rome Conquers Italy 

In spite of their many colonies, the Greeks had civilized 
only the seacoast here and there. They had no love for 
the inland wilderness, with its dangers from wild beasts 
and from ambushes of hostile barbarians. The islands and 
shores of the Mediterranean made up their whole world. 

Herodotus had traveled much, was a careful observer, 
and had a very clear idea about geography ; yet he says, 
''Whether Europe is surrounded by water either towards 
the east or towards the north, has not been fully dis- 
covered by any man ; but in length it is known to extend 
beyond both the other continents." By ''both the other 
continents" he means Asia and Africa. 

Now any school boy can look into his atlas and see 

that wise old Herodotus, the great traveler, was wrong ; 

that Europe is not so large as either Asia or 

Greek Africa. But the men of that time knew only 

Ideas of , /. * ^ • 

the World ^"^^ northern part of Africa and the western part 
of Asia and could only guess about the rest. 
Herodotus even says, "Asia is inhabited as far as India; 
but beyond this it is all desert towards the east, nor is 
any one able to describe what it is." We can see, there- 
fore, that China, one of the richest, most ancient, and 
most civilized countries of the earth, was unknown to the 
Greeks and their neighbors. 

Even the northern part of his own Europe Herodotus 

7^ 



ROME GROWS STRONG 



75 



did not know. After having told about a race of people 
who lived somewhere northeast of the Black Sea and who 
''are said to be bald from their birth," he says, "But 
beyond the bald men no one can speak with certainty ; 



ITALY 




Italy in Relief 



for lofty and impassable mountains form their boundary, 
and no one has ever crossed them." All Siberia and 
Russia, you see, were quite unknown to travelers of 
Herodotus' time. 

This, then, was the Greek world : the shores of the 
Mediterranean and the wild, half-guessed outer border 



76 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



full of things partly known and partly fancied. There 
was much left for explorers and civilizers to do. 

The next people to take up the work of civilizers were 
the Romans, that small tribe whom the Greek traders, 
700 years before Christ, had found living as 
Favorable gi^-^pie farmers on the western plains of central 
of Rome Italy. ^ In these early days the Romans were 
but one part of the Latin tribe, and Latins 
were but one of many tribes in Italy. Rome had about 
her only a small circle of land of perhaps a hundred 
square miles. But the city was fortunately located. It 
was on the Tiber River, up which the small seagoing ships 
of the time could row. Yet it was twelve miles from the 
seashore and therefore safe from the pirates, who were 
the pests of the coast towns. At this spot on the 

Tiber, moreover, was the 
only fordable place where 
the Etruscan traders from 
the North could cross into 
Roman territory to sell 
their goods. 

Rome was built on hills 
which overlooked the level 
plains around her. She 
could see her enemies ap- 
proaching and could have 
time to prepare against them. Her men, besides, 
were hearty and brave and loved their city with in- 
tense patriotism. They saw her surrounded by enemies. 
In the fertile plains north of her was Etruria, a nation 
of skillful artists and builders and sailors, eager to grow 
into a greater state with wider lands. To the south was 
the rich country of "Great Greece," with its beautiful 

1 See also page 12. 




Rome and Her Hills 



ROME GROWS STRONG 77 

cities and busy workshops and its boats coming and going. 
In the hills to the east were barbarous, warlike tribes who 
swooped down upon Rome like robber bands. All about 
her were other Latin cities, all hoping to grow great at 
the expense of their neighbors. In the early days hardly 
a year passed that the Romans did not have to fight for 
their lives. If Rome was to live, she needed to make 
herself stronger than her neighbors and to subdue them. 

So the Romans raised their arms against first one 
Latin city and then another, and compelled them all 
to bow to Rome. Then trouble began with 
Etruria, the foreign neighbor to the north. ^°"^® 

. Mistress 

There were years of warfare, until at last she of Italy 
was conquered. Rome next turned her hand 
against the other tribes of Italy. Sometimes she was 
beaten in bloody battles, but in general she won and kept 
adding new lands to her territory. 

As she worked southward in her conquests, Rome met 
the rich cities of Magna Grsecia. They felt that they 
could not allow this new barbarian power, as 
they called it, to grow too great. They took ^^^^^ 
the side of Rome's enemies, and even invited a 
warrior prince of Greece over into Italy to help them. 
Rome patiently fought with him and lost, and filled up 
her ranks with new men and fought again, waiting until 
his army should be worn out in this hostile land. After 
five years it was done ; and the prince fled back to Greece. 
Soon all of southern Italy was in the hands of Rome, and 
by 266 B.C. she was mistress of all the land from the Arno 
River to the southern tip of the country — a great terri- 
tory 500 miles long. 

Roman Life 

What sort of people were these victorious Romans, 
these masters of Italy? Suppose that by some magic 



78 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



The City 



you could be transported back to the year 200 B.C., carried 
for thousands of miles across the ocean, and set down 

in ancient Athens and then in ancient Rome. 

The two cities would seem to you much alike. 
In both you would see hills and a stone wall stretching 
about them. In both, low, fiat-roofed houses would be 
packed close along crooked streets, with no room for 




A Court in a Roman House 



lawns or parks. In Rome and Athens alike you would 
see a market-place lying among hills, with public build- 
ings and statues of heroes and gods standing around it. 
In each market-place you would find men gathered for 
some public meeting. Both peoples would be in strange 
garments much alike — the common men in short chitons 
leaving neck, arms, and legs bare ; the gentlemen with 
trailing, shawl-like cloaks wrapped around their bodies. 
Both peoples would be speaking a language strange to you. 



ROME GROWS STRONG 79 

You would find the heart and the head of the city of 
Rome to.be this market-place, or "Forum." You could 
walk the length of it in ten minutes, yet it was one of 
the most famous and most important places in the 
world. Every spot of ground here was made holy by old 
events and story. On the hills that surrounded it had 
been the little villages that had later grown into great 
Rome. For more generations than men know, the ances- 
tors of the Romans had been busy in this little marshy 
valley lying below the hills. Women had drawn water 
at the springs there. Men had met in the open space 
to consult upon laws or to prepare for war. There had 
been the market for buying and selling. Here the king 
had had his house. Romulus, the founder of Rome and 
the first of her kings, lay buried here, men said. Temple 
after temple had been built, and smoke and song con- 
tinually rose from them to the gods. 

As you walked the Forum, layer upon layer of older 
pavements and of older buildings would lie buried under 
your feet, and every spot would seem too old 
and too sacred to be trodden upon. Yet men 
would be hurrying about here on all sorts of business. 
A young nobleman with a crowd of friends and slaves 
surrounding him would be walking before the goldsmith 
shops that bordered the road on the southern side. A 
sick man in a curtained litter would be carried past you 
to drink the waters of the fountain of Juturna and to lie 
in a little room, waiting for the god of healing to visit 
him. 

You might, perhaps, stand with a great crowd before 
the rostrum, or speaker's platform, and hear an orator 
speak to the people concerning a new law. You would 
see a man carrying some gift enter a temple, hoping to 
win the gods' help in a voyage he was about to make. 



8o 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 




Romans Going to Make Sacrifice 

This and the next picture are of reliefs carved on a Roman altar. 
All of the men but one are wearing the shawl-like toga over the tunic 

Along the north side of the Forum you would find a 
street lined with butchers' booths and fish stalls, where 
gentlemen with hosts of friends and slaves would be buy- 
ing meat for the evening's banquet. Business and re- 
ligion and politics went hand in hand in the Roman 
Forum. 

Just as every family had a house and a hearth with a 
fire ever burning on it, so the great family of Rome had 
a house and a hearth and a hearth fire. The little 
round temple of Vesta, the home goddess, stood in the 
Forum. In it on an altar burned the sacred fire of the 
city, started afresh by the high priest every New Year's 
Day, and burning to the year's end. Six noble 
maidens of Rome were chosen to guard it. 
They were called Vestal Virgins, and they gave up their 
lives to being the daughters of Rome, guardians of her fire, 
mistresses of her house, makers of her holy bread, per- 
formers of her sacrifices, keepers of her most precious 
relics. 

Close to the temple of Vesta was the house where Hved 



Religion 



ROME GROWS STRONG 



■% ii^v' I 




'• *'|;- i'liimv-^: 




Romans Going to Make Sacrifice 



the high priest, the head of the Roman reUgion. Here 
were the sacred dishes and tools with which the priests 
offered wine and cakes to the gods or killed animals in 
their honor. Here were the holy books which described 
what men should do and say at the sacred festivals. 
Here were kept, too, the lists of officers elected year after 
year and the stone tablets of the calendar which set the 
holy days. Above an altar in this house, also hung two 
spears of Mars, the god of war and the favorite god of 
Rome. Whenever these two spears clattered together, 
it was an ill omen for Rome, and sacrifice had to be made 
to the displeased god. 

The gods were stern and severe and difficult to please. 
They demanded from men frequent sacrifice and prayer 
and strict obedience. They would not lend 
their aid unless men observed all the ceremonies 
that did them honor. So a Roman's life was full of 
religious rites — praying, pouring libations of wine, burn- 
ing holy cakes, and making gifts to the gods. Such things 
he did when he rose in the morning, before he ate a meal, 



Sacrifices 



82 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

when he returned home from a journey, when he was 
beginning a piece of business, when the lands were 
plowed and the seed sown and the harvest reaped, 
when he was ill, when he recovered, when a child was 
born, when a member of his family died. 

In the same way Rome, the state, had to deal with 
the gods. Her newly elected officers sacrificed to them. 
The meetings of the people were opened with sacrifice. 
Before war was declared, sacrifice was made, and again 
when victory was gained. If ill fortune happened to 
Rome, it was because the gods were in some way dis- 
pleased, and gifts were made to them to soothe their 
anger. The first fruits of the harvest were given to the 
Vestals, who sacrificed them as a thank-offering from the 
whole state. For every god annual festivals were held ; 
and every five years the whole people with priests and 
officers, with song and sprinkled water and great pomp, 
walked in procession about the city and purified it, in 
order that it might be pleasing to the gods. 

After sacrifice had been offered, it was always neces- 
sary to know whether the gods had accepted it and would 
be kind. But it was difficult to know their will, and only 
men of the priestly colleges, trained for years in the 
science of reading signs and in the rituals of religion, 
could know the attitude of the gods. So always in 
matters of war or state an augur was consulted. He 
studied the color of the flame or the drifting of the smoke 
or the movement of the burning meat, or he watched for 
birds flying above or a sound from round about. In such 
signs he could read the pleasure or the displeasure of the 
gods and could advise whether to go on with the thing 
planned or to wait and perform further sacrifice. So the 
Romans seemed to walk continually under the frown of 
the gods, always trying to win their smiles. 




A Roman Woman Sacrificing 



[83I 



84 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

Rome had begun her history under kings, but she 
grew dissatisfied with them, expelled them, and set up a 
republic. That is a government by which the 
Govern- people rule themselves through officers whom 
509 (?) B.C. ^^®y elect, as we do in the United States. The 
chief officer the Romans called, not president, 
but consul, and they chose two, one to check the other, 
lest one might try to make himself king. These consuls 
were elected by an assembly of the people, meeting in an 
open field, much like the assembly of Athens. There was 
a senate of three hundred members, whose business it was 
to advise the consuls and to help the assembly make laws. 

The republic was not perfect, and very soon people 
began to find fault with it and to try to improve it. 
There were always two classes in Rome : the patrician 
and the plebeian, that is, the noble and the common. 
When Rome first became a republic, only the patricians 
had privileges. The plebeians might not hold any office, 
did not have a fair chance to vote, might not marry a 
patrician, did not know what the laws were, and were in 
many ways ill treated by the patricians. 

But the plebeians grew richer, stronger, and better 
educated, and they would not endure being thus shut 
out. So after a struggle of two hundred years 
and more they gained equal rights with the 
patricians. In the senate sat rich commoners beside the 
patrician descendants of noble families that could trace 
their lineage back to the time when Rome had been a 
farming village. Below these men of wealth or blood 
was a great mass of commoners, poor, but with the right 
to vote and to hold office. 

From the first the Roman army had been the great 
pride and strength of the people. Every citizen between 
the ages of eighteen and sixty years owed military serv- 




A Roman Sacrifice before a Temple 

In the center stands a Roman emperor about to make the sacrifice. An assist- 
ant holds the ax that is to slay the bull. Behind him a man carries one of 
the holy dishes, and so does a boy standing next to the emperor. Another boy 
is playing the flute. The three-legged table in the center serves as altar 



[8s] 



86 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

ice. No man received pay for this service ; it was 
his duty to the state. These citizen-soldiers were welded 
into close brotherhood. Neighbor touched el- 
^^® bow with neighbor when he stood in the Forum 

Army ^^ ^^^^ or in the field to fight. Together these 

warrior citizens trained and exercised just out- 
side of Rome on the field of Mars. By such organi- 
zation and practice, a strong, patriotic, closely knit 
army had grown up in Rome and had made her supreme 
in Italy. 

No wonder that these Romans were a proud people! 
They had seen Rome grow from a village ^ to be the owner 
of a great state. They saw their city still growing larger 
and richer. In every war of their history they had won, 
sooner or later. They felt themselves brave and honest. 
They looked back with respect upon their ancestors and 
looked forward with hope. 

They did much to encourage this pride among the 

people. When a famous man died, he had a public 

funeral. His body was placed upon the rostrum in the 

Forum where all the people could see, and a relative 

made an oration, telling of his deeds. A mask 

Oman ^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ j^^j^ y[\^q jijg face, and it 

Pnde ; 

was set up in his house to remind his children of 
their great and good father. Some families had many 
such masks of their great ancestors, and they were proud 
of them. At the funeral of any of their house, men 
wore these masks and walked in the procession as if to 
say, ''Behold how many good Romans there have been : 
let us be worthy of them." 

For much the same purpose a victorious general was 
allowed a "triumph." He and his army gathered outside 
the city wall on the field of Mars, the training ground of 

'See also page 76. 



ROME GROWS STRONG 87 

Rome. From there started a procession headed by the 
senate and officers of the city. Trumpeters followed, 
blowing warlike notes and calling the attention 
of the world. Then came the spoils that had 
been taken from the enemy — armor on wagons, perhaps 
a statue or a crown or a throne, a chariot in which a king 
or general of the foe had ridden. There were tableaux 
on floats representing the nation that had been defeated 
or a river that had been crossed or a mountain that 
had been won. Then came cattle for the sacrifice, horns 
gilded and wreathed with garlands. After them in chains 
sadly walked captives taken in battle. 

Behind them four horses drew the chariot in which 
stood the victorious general, dressed in a purple robe 
embroidered with golden palm leaves. He carried in his 
right hand a branch of laurel, symbol of victory, and in 
his left an ivory scepter with an eagle at its end, symbol 
of power. A slave held a golden crown above his head, 
yet whispered in his ear that after all he must not forget 
that he was only a man. Behind the victor followed 
the army that had helped him to gain his victory, and 
the soldiers sang and shouted. 

The city streets through which the procession wound 
were decked with garlands, and every flat roof and door- 
way and open space was crowded with people, shouting 
and throwing flowers. The procession climbed the 
Capitol Hill, where the temple of Jupiter stood. The 
victor laid his laurel branch in the lap of the god and 
sacrificed the cattle in thanksgiving. People went home 
thinking of Rome's army and the courage of her men, 
many a boy hoping that some day he might ride in that 
glorious chariot and hear the applause of the people. 

Every Roman mother believed it her duty to tell her 
sons stories of the old Romans who had made Rome. 



88 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

She told of brave Horatius and his two friends, who 
alone kept back a mighty Etruscan army, while the 
Romans hewed down the bridge over which the 
A Few of enemy had thought to march into Rome. And 
of Rome when it fell crashing, Horatius, needing no 
longer to fight, leaped into the river, and in 
spite of weariness and wounds, in spite of the enemy on 
the bank, swam in safety to Rome. 

''Let nothing make you afraid in the cause of Rome," 
mothers would say to their sons. ''Let nothing shake 
your determination, just as nothing could daunt the 
noble youth, Caius Mucins. He had tried to kill the 
king of Etruria, for Etruria was at war with Rome and 
would have put a king over her once more. When 
Mucins was caught, carrying the very dagger with which 
he had meant to kill the king, he would tell no Roman 
secrets. The king thought to frighten him and had fires 
built all about him, threatening to push them closer if the 
young man did not tell his secret. 'Behold me,' cried 
Mucins, ' that you may see of how little account the body 
is to those who have great glory in view.' Then he 
thrust his right hand into the fire and held it there until 
it was burned off. 'There are three hundred young men 
like me waiting to kill you if I fail,' he said. Even that 
cruel king admired such courage and such devotion to 
country, and he set the young man free." 

Such stories, heard at his mother's knee and shown 
by statue or carving in the public places, bred bravery 
and patriotism in the Roman boy. Daily, also, he went 
with his father to the field of Mars beside the river to see 
the young men run, leap, box, and wrestle, throw the 
spear, and ride spirited horses. Soon he, too, entered into 
these sports and was trained for vigorous, fearless man- 
hood. 



ROME GROWS STRONG 89 

1. What differences are there between the shores of Greece and those 
of Italy? 2. What do people mean when they say that Italy turns her 
back on the East? 3. Quickly sketch the chief mountain ranges of 
Greece and those of Italy. What differences do you see? 4. Model 
Rome and the surrounding country in sand. 5. Compare the pictures 
of Greek costume (pages 35, 41, 46, 47) with the Roman (pages 80, 
81, 83, 85). 6. The Roman house pictured on page 78 was much 
like the Greek house described on pages 40 and 42. To what kind of 
climate does this sort of house seem well fitted? In such a climate 
should you rather live in it than in our type of house? 7. What 
qualities of character did the Romans admire most strongly ? How 
can you tell? 8. What hero stories do Americans tell their children 
to show them the goodness and worthiness of their countuy ? 9. Write 
a dialogue that two young Romans walking in the Forum might have 
had concerning the greatness of Rome, their love for her, their religion. 



CHAPTER V 

ROME CONQUERS THE WORLD 
How Rome Conquered Carthage 

Anothek great city was jealously watching Rome's 
growth. This was Carthage, an old colony of Phoenicia 
on the shore of Africa. She was not a mere city ; she 
had her line of colonies running like a chain around the 
western end of the Mediterranean. The coasts of Africa 
and of Spain were hers, the shores of Sardinia and of 
Sicily, and many small islands besides. 

While Rome had been making herself mistress of Italy, 
Carthage had been making herself mistress of the sea. 
For besides her lands, she had great fleets of ships, 
thousands of slaves to row them, and plenty of money to 
hire sailors and soldiers. She boasted that a Roman 
could not wash his hands in the sea without asking leave 
of her. Her ships were known in every Mediterranean 
port, and they carried a thousand precious things for 
sale. She wanted to keep the monopoly of this trade, 
but more and more Roman traders were invading her 
business territory. 

The new Roman borders, moreover, were now not far 
from the Carthaginian colonies of Sicily. So Carthage 
Rome and began to look with great suspicion upon Rome. 
Carthage At the same time the Romans were looking 
Become enviously upon Carthage. The rich Romans 
nemies wanted new lands for farming, the manufac- 
turers wanted new customers for their goods, the traders 
wanted more room for commerce, the state thought that 

90 



ROME CONQUERS THE WORLD 91 

Carthage in Sicily was too close a neighbor to her southern 
shore. 

So the two states sat facing each other across the 
water, with Sicily hke a stepping stone between them. 
Only two years after Rome had made herself 
mistress of Italy, the trouble with Carthage ^^^^^ 
began over a quarrel which started in Sicily. 
There followed a twenty-three years' war. Rome began 
it on land. There she could defeat Carthaginian armies 
and take Carthaginian land. But of what use was that, 




A Trireme 

The sculptor of the relief has shortened the ship and left out most of the rowers 
and all the fighting men. Yet we can see the bronze beak for ramming, the pilot's 
oars in place of the rudder, and the three banks of oars, though they are too 

crowded 

when the Carthaginian fleet worried the coast, burned the 
sea towns, captured grain ships and boat-loads of soldiers ? 
''We must have a fleet," said Rome, ''and the ships 
must be like the big new galleys of Carthage, not like the 
little old-fashioned boats that we have had." The gods 
seemed to help them, for a big Carthaginian warship was 



92 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



wrecked upon the Italian coast. This the Romans 
copied. It had, besides a big sail, 300 long oars arranged 
in five banks, one above another. A sharp iron beak, 
with a great tooth at each side, thrust itself out at the 
bow, and when the 300 rowers pulled their best, the 
heavy ship bit into the enemy's ship and tore it open as a 
vulture tears its prey. High on the mast was a crow's nest 
and in the bow a walled forecastle, where men could fight. 

In sixty days Rome built 120 sh*ips of this sort. With 
her new fleet she met the enemy and won a great victory. 
Four times during the war her fleets were de- 
^^^. stroyed in storm or battle and four times rebuilt. 

One of her armies was wiped out in fight and 
another drowned in a storm. A sixth of all the fighting men 
of Rome were killed, and yet fresh troops were always ready 
at need. Such dogged courage could but win. The Car- 
thaginians asked for peace and gave up Sicily to their con- 
querors. The Romans had stepped outside of Italy. 

But proud Carthage was not content. For twenty- 
three years she kept the peace, yet she was using the 
time to prepare punishment for Rome. A Carthaginian 
patriot, Hamilcar, a statesman and a warrior, built up a 
nation in Spain among its half-civilized people. There 
he gathered and trained an army, opened silver mines 
that should be able to pay that army, planted towns that 
might furnish it supplies, built a port that should protect 
a fleet ; and all the time his eyes were on Rome. He 
died before the two countries came to the grip again. 
Yet he had trained up a son greater than himself, and as 
much an enemy of Rome. 

That son, Hannibal, had grown up in the soldiers' 
camp ; and there was not a muscle in his body but was 
firm and untiring, not a nerve but was quick and steady, 
not a thought but was patriotic. He loved Carthage, and 



ROME CONQUERS THE WORLD 



93 



he hated Rome. This man, when he was thirty years 

old, took up the army that his father had 

made and the war that his father had planned. Hanmbai s 

War 2 1 8— 

Part of his soldiers he left to protect Spain, 201 B.C. 

part he sent to guard Carthage and the coast 

of Africa, but the great mass he led straight into Italy. 




Rome and Carthage 

at tile 'begdmrhrg of the 
Second Funic War 

The march of Hannibal ...».— .. 



The stippled territory belonged to Rome ; the hatched area to Carthage 

It was a march of 500 miles from Spain. There were 
rivers to cross, hostile tribes to win a way through, 
and a rugged wall of snow- topped mountains to pass. 
For more than two weeks the armies climbed the steep 
mountain trail. Sometimes the men and baggage-mules 
slipped from the narrow, snow-covered paths and plunged 
over the precipice. The mountain tribes hid behind 
rocks and worried the army and killed the stragglers. 
The men suffered from cold and from hunger, for food 
was difficult to find here on barren mountains. 

Hannibal started from Spain with an army of 50,000 
fresh soldiers ; he trailed down from the fierce Alps into 



94 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



Italy with 26,000 men, hungry, tired, and discouraged. 
The mountains had done their best to protect Italy. 
With that small army, however, he met the Romans and 
defeated them. For seventeen years he led his troops 
about in Italy, feeding them on Italian crops, living in 
Italian towns, every moment on guard, proving himself 
one of the greatest generals of the world. 

But it was one man against a nation. Hannibal could 
win battles, but he could not win friends. He had hoped 
that those Latins and Italians whom Rome had con- 
quered,^ and whom she held so much against their will, 
would welcome him and would turn against their old 
enemy. But most of them stood fast for Rome against 
the foreigner. 

During that long war 300,000 men of Italy fell in 
battle. In the single fight of Cannae 70,000 were left 
dead on the field. More than half of the senators of 
Rome died in that battle, and one seventh of all the men 
of Italy who were of age to fight. But immediately the 
Roman ranks were filled again. 

There was no sacrifice that the people would not make. 
For many years every man in Italy of fighting age was 
in the army. Farms lay abandoned, or a few fields were 
worked by old men and boys and by women and girls. 
Rome's public money was soon spent. When she needed 
a new navy, wealthy Romans gave money from their 
own purses to build it. Contractors, who had been 
doing Rome's work of various kinds for many years, 
refused now to take pay but gave their services to their 
country. So with patient courage and self-sacrifice Italy 
fed men and money into this hungry war. She even 
sent an extra army into Sicily to hold it, and another 
into Spain to take it away from Carthage. 

1 See also page 77. 



ROME CONQUERS THE WORLD 



95 



Hannibal had no such patriotism to help him. Car- 
thage across the sea was untouched and safe. To be sure, 
she was proud of her brilliant general, who was winning 
battles off there in Italy, and yet she was jealous, too. 
She was stingy, moreover, and unwilling to spare him 
more men and money. ''Let him shift for himself," she 
seemed to say. 




Rome aud Carthage 

At the end of the Second Funic War 



The stippled territory belonged to Rome ; the hatched area to Carthage 

But an army cannot live in an enemy's country without 
help from home. So gradually the Romans closed about 
Hannibal and shut him up in the southern end of Italy. 
At last they sent an army into Africa and threatened 
Carthage herself. Then the proud city sent for its great 
general to come home. Hannibal and his army left Italy, 
landed in Africa, met the Romans, and were defeated. 
Carthage again asked for peace. 

At the end of the first Carthaginian, or Punic, war 
Rome had got Sicily, and a year or two later she had 
seized Sardinia and Corsica. Now she took also Hamil- 



96 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

car's Spain, or rather the nearer shores of it, for the in- 
land part was still savage and independent. Carthage 
gave up her ships and her war elephants. She promised 
to pay a large sum of money to Rome and to make no war 
without Rome's consent. 

But Carthage seemed to thrive on defeat. Fifty 
years after Hannibal's war she was as prosperous 
as ever. Rome felt it an insult for her beaten enemy to 
be larger and richer than herself, with more ships and 
a fuller harbor and a busier market. In jealousy 
and hatred men began to say, ''Carthage must be de- 
stroyed." 

Soon Rome found an excuse for war. The Carthagin- 
ians were desperate with fear and patriotism, and they 
^ ,^ held out for three years against the hated 

Carthage "^ . ® 

Is De- Romans. But at last their strong walls fell, 
stroyed, their rich city was burned, their people were 
149-146 captured and sold as slaves. A Roman general 
ran a plow over the ground where Carthage 
had stood, as if to say: ''We have swept our enemy 
from the face of the earth. Men's feet shall never 
again tread her streets. Her market-place has become 
a grain-field. Cursed be he who shall try to rebuild 
her!" 

By this cruel war Rome gained whatever land was left 
Rome *^ Carthage on the shores of Africa. A new 

Mistress empire — Italy, Sicily, Spain, Africa, and the 
of the West islands of the sea — had grown up in the West, 
and Rome was mistress of it. 

Rome's Conquest of the East 

In Chapter III we left the East united for a few years 
under the arms of a great general, Alexander, But it 
was like caging lions and horses together ; they could not 



ROME CONQUERS THE WORLD 97 

learn one another's ways and live in peace. Alexander, 
like a master trainer, could hold them in check, but he 
died before he had taught them to live in unity, and before 
he had taught his generals how to rule the great 
empire he had made. Even as the beloved 
conqueror's body lay on the bier waiting to be buried, 
his generals fell to quarreling over who should be ruler in 
his place. 

After a few years it all ended in the splitting of the 
empire into three great kingdoms — Macedon, Syria, and 
Egypt. On the fringes of these great countries little 
states were always cropping up, swelling into importance 
under one king and sinking into littleness again under 
the next. Greece herself was, as usual, divided and in 
turmoil. Some cities quietly accepted the rule of Mace- 
don, others struggled bravely against it. 

All these changes in the East had happened behind 
Rome's back, while she had been conquering 
Italy. She had hardly known of the events ^°"^® 
and had been little interested. Indeed, the Eastward 
West and the East seemed like two different 
worlds. Yet some of the Western peoples had friends or 
enemies in the East. A Greek prince had fought against 
Rome on behalf of the Italian Greeks ; and during Han- 
nibal's war the king of Macedon had helped the Car- 
thaginians. Moreover, pirates from the coast north of 
Greece had often troubled Rome. 

So after her wars in Italy were over, and after she had 
won the first glorious Punic war, Rome, thus pricked in 
the back, at last faced about and cast her 

. 229 B.C. 

eyes on the East, full of its jealousies and wars. 
The first step she took was to punish the pirates and take 
a few of their cities for her own. Her next step landed 
her in Macedon. There were three wars here many years 



98 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

apart, as there had been with Carthage, and they ended 

as the Punic wars had ended, in victory for 

g^^~^ ^ Rome. Corinth, the ''eye of Greece," as she 

, was called, was destroyed as Carthage was 

destroyed, and Roman governors ruled over the land of 

Alexander, and over the cities of Pericles and 
146 B.C. . ' 

of Leomdas. 

But the defeated Greeks called upon a great king of 

Syria, himself a Macedonian, to help them. The Romans 

beat him at old Thermopylae, chased him 

Mistress across the sea, and defeated him again in Asia. 

of the Rome's third step had taken her far into the 

East, 66-63 q|(J world, more than a thousand miles from 
B.C. , 

home. 

One after another, in the years to come, the countries 
of western Asia fell into Roman hands. Pompey, the 
Roman general who did most in these wars, boasted that 
he had conquered twenty-two kings and twelve million 
people. By the year 60 e.g. Rome had won most of 
Alexander's old empire. 

It was the great general, Pompey, too, who, just before 
his conquest of the East, made Rome mistress of the sea 
by putting an end to the pirates. Rome had already 
punished those of the Adriatic,^ but those of the East 
still flourished. For years the Mediterranean had been 
infested with them. In the eastern seas alone there had 
been a thousand pirate ships. These men had been 
daring beyond belief. One pirate chief had sailed into 
the harbor of the great city of Syracuse in Sicily, had 
captured it, made it his headquarters, and sent raiders 
hither and thither through the rich island under the 
very nose of the Roman governor. Once the pirate fleet 
had met the Roman ships in the harbor of Ostia, only 

I See page 97. 



ROME CONQUERS THE WORLD 99 

twelve miles from Rome, and had defeated them. Certain 
islands and coast cities had paid a yearly tribute of gold 
to the pirates and so had bought their protection against 
themselves. There had been pirate towns on the sea- 
coasts of the East where the men had lived between raids 
and where they had kept their families and their precious 
stores. A merchant, when he sent out a rich cargo by 
ship, had not known whether it would reach its own port 
or some pirate hold. 

Finally Rome sent Pompey to clean out these nests of 
pirates. He did it thoroughly. Inside of three months 
1300 pirate ships were destroyed, 10,000 pirates R^j^g 
killed, and 20,000 captured. Their strong- Mistress 
holds were burned, their prisoners set free, of the Sea, 
their stores taken and distributed among ^ ' ' 
the Roman soldiers or turned over to the Roman 
treasury. After that, merchant ships could go safely 
to and fro carrying things of all sorts from end to 
end of the world. 

Caesar's War in Gaul, 58-50 B.C. 

Meantime the empire was still further growing in the 
West. The story of this conquest is very different from 
that of the conquest of the East. The western 
war was with barbarians, brave and hardy. p°™^^ 
Rome got from it, not treasures of gold and of the West 
jewelry, but great stretches of wild forest. 
Here the Romans became, not learners, as they were in 
the East, but teachers. Julius Caesar's conquest of 
Gaul shows better than any other war the condition of 
the peoples of western Europe. It shows, too, what the 
Roman army at its best could do. 

For eight years Caesar marched hither and thither through 
Gaul. He played a great game, moving his army about 



lOO THE ANCIENT WORLD 

so quickly that he was always appearing unexpectedly 
at just the wrong minute for his enemy. He was always 
surprising them — fording a swift river that was up to the 
shoulders ; pretending to retreat and then suddenly facing 
about ; marching fifty miles in one day and night ; digging 
out a road through six feet of snow ; rebuilding a bridge 
on ruined piles that the enemy had left. 




The Dying Gaul 

The Gauls were a good match for the Romans. They 
had towns protected with well-built walls of stones 
and timber. They were brilliant horsemen. They had 
swords as long as spears (so a certain Roman said) and 
spearheads as long as swords. They were strong of body 
and fierce of look. Their helmets were decorated with 
threatening horns or frightful animal heads. They ran 
into battle with fearful shouts. 

Csesar himself, who wrote his own story of his Gallic 
war, gives many examples of their bravery. He says of 
£he Gauls in a certain battle, ''But the enemy, even in 
the last hope of safety, showed such great courage that 
when the foremost of them had fallen, the next stood 



ROME CONQUERS THE WORLD loi 

upon them prostrate and fought from their bodies ; when 
these were overthrown, and their corpses heaped up to- 
gether, those who survived cast their weapons against 
our men as from a mound." 

Yet in spite of their courage and their numbers, Csesar 
completely conquered the whole nation of the Gauls and 
made the country a Roman province. Why was it 
possible for him to do it? Partly because the Gauls had 
no idea of standing together. A half-civilized people 
never seems to know the meaning of unity. So here in 
Gaul tribe was jealous of tribe, leaders were jealous of 
one another, men were suspicious of their chiefs. When 
one tribe was making a brave fight, the others, instead 
of rushing to their aid and wiping the Romans out by 
their united strength, stood by and watched. 

Another aid to the Romans was the fact that during 
.their centuries of warfare they had invented many 
strange and clever engines. The Gauls, shutting ^o™*"^ 
themselves now and then inside one of their ofwar 
fenced towns and stationing their brave guards 
on the wall, thought themselves safe. But Csesar im- 
mediately began to build a dozen things. 

There was no gunpowder then, but the Greeks or 
Romans had invented a fair substitute. Perhaps you 
have put a stick between the strands of a double string 
and twisted it around and around. If you then held the 
string tightly stretched and let the stick go, the string 
untwisted with a great whirr, the stick flew around, and 
the stroke from it was very unpleasant. The Romans 
used this idea. But instead of a string they used many 
strands of rope, and their stick was very thick and heavy. 
They mounted the rope in a strong frame and invented 
ways of twisting it tight, of holding it firmly, and of 
letting it go suddenly. In front of the whirring stick 



102 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



they put stones or balls of lead or stout arrows. One of 
these catapults could shoot an arrow a thousand feet 
and drive it into a board for two inches. 

Another Roman machine was a battering ram for 
beating down stone walls. It was a heavy timber swung 




A Movable Tower 

A modern drawing. Tracks were built on which to move the tower. Notice 
the rollers under it. A bridge has been let down across the enemy's ditch. 
You cannot see the wall of the besieged place. The men are running toward it 

in loops of rope and mounted on wheels. Men ran with 
it against the walls, beating again and again at the same 
spot. Still more wonderful was the movable tower. It 
was eighty or ninety feet high. The soldiers built it at 
some distance from the town, where they were safe. 
Then they got inside at the bottom of it and pushed it 
forward on its rollers close to the enemy's wall. Wben 



ROME CONQUERS THE WORLD 103 

it was near enough, they ran up the inside stairways to 
the top and began shooting arrows and throwing stones 
down upon the guard on the city wall. Besides, they 
dropped a swinging bridge from the tower top upon the 
wall and rushed over it and into the town. 

At other times they dug mines. They put down a 
shaft in some safe place in their own camp. From the 
bottom of this they tunneled along under the ground 
and under the wall. Then they dug a shaft upward to 
end in the town. Some dark night, when the Gauls were 
unsuspecting, a troop of besiegers, with swords ready, 
crawled through the tunnel, dug away the last layers of 
earth, and came out into the city. Generally only a few 
men entered in this way, stole to the gate, killed the 
guards, opened the doors, and signaled to the waiting 
army outside to enter. 

Or sometimes the Romans built a great mound of 
earth against the outside of the wall. From this they 
could shoot down into the town and later charge along it 
and leap into the city. There were scaling ladders, too, 
which the soldiers set against the wall and by which 
they tried to climb up and over. 

To be sure, while the Romans outside were using these 
engines and doing this building and digging, the Gauls 
were throwing lighted torches or burning arrows at their 
engines, and rocks and melted lead and hot water at the 
soldiers. So the Romans had planned ways of protect- 
ing themselves. They made sheds of stout beams and 
put them on rollers. Men stood in them and pushed 
them about to guard themselves as they worked the bat- 
tering ram or dug mines or carried earth for the mound. 

Besides, the soldiers were trained to make a movable 
shed out of their own oblong wooden shields. To do this 
they marched shoulder to shoulder and in perfect time. 



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(104] 



ROME CONQUERS THE WORLD 105 

Each man held his long shield over his head with its edge 
tight against his neighbor's shield. Sometimes several 
ranks, one behind another, formed this tortoise, as they 
called it. It must have been a strange sight, this tight 
roof of bright shields with marching legs below it. 

Better, however, than any siege engines were the soldiers 
themselves. Citizens of wealth no longer wished to 
undergo the discomforts of war as they had done in the 
time of the struggle against Carthage ^ ; consequently 
the fighting fell to poorer men who had no taste for 
luxury. They could not afford to give their services free 
of pay as in the old days. Now, moreover, 
armies could not return home for the autumn ^^ 
harvest and the spring planting, as had been ^j^y 
done in the days of the forefathers. They were 
needed all the year and every year in far distant lands. 
Many of the poorer class, therefore, made a business of 
war and hired themselves out year after year. Rome's 
citizen army had given place to a professional one. 

In Caesar's army there were a few slingers from Crete, 
a great island near Greece. They shot stones or lead 
balls from a sling, about as boys do in our day. There 
was also a little band of archers from the Balearic Islands 
near Italy. There was a small troop of cavalry, made up of 
Spaniards and Germans and the conquered Gauls. But 
these were not the important members of the army. The 
larger part of it was the Roman legionaries, citizens from 
Rome and the rest of Italy. They were farmers and 
shepherds, carpenters, blacksmiths, and shopkeepers who 
had decided that they would like to get a soldier's pay 
and a soldier's experience. Some of them were new recruits, 
others had been in the army for ten or fifteen years and 
were wise in the game of war. 

1 See also page 84. 



io6 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



There were five or six thousand soldiers in each legion, 
and Caesar had six or eight legions in his whole army, 
besides the slingers and archers and horsemen — in all 
about fifty thousand men. This army on the march made 
a line perhaps three miles long ; for besides the soldiers 




A Roman War Scene 

In the backRround is a walled town which the army is to besiege. The sol- 
diers are disembarking from boats and carrying the baggage ashore. Some 
already landed are setting out for battle. Four of them are Germans. In the 
center is the emperor with his staff. Soldiers are holding the officers' horses." 
Notice helmets on seven heads 



were pack mules carrying the baggage — tents and tent 
stakes, picks, shovels, hammers, carpenters' tools, black- 
smiths' tools, and provisions. It must have been an 
interesting-looking procession. 

The slingers wore no armor, but only the Greek costume 
of short tunic and flying short cape of bright color. The 
legionary wore, over his shoulders and around his body, 
armor of shining bronze or of stiff leather. Below this 



ROME CONQUERS THE WORLD 107 

dropped the skirt of a colored tunic, but legs and arms 
were bare. If the day was cool, he had a bright cape 
thrown about his shoulders. He wore on his head or 
carried slung before him a bright bronze helmet, and some 
of the officers had waving plumes of horsehair atop. 

Over his shoulders every man carried a forked stick — 
his mule, he called it — with a blanket, a cup, a pan, and 
a week's supply of food strapped to it. Perhaps the 
burden weighed forty or fifty pounds. A large rectan- 
gular shield hung at his back with its dull cloth cover to 
protect the bronze figures and painted colors that made 
it gay. His spears, perhaps, with their heavy bronze 
points, were in a baggage wagon behind him, but his 
broad short sword, with two sharp edges, hung at his 
right side, where his fighting hand could quickly grasp it. 

All along the fine above the heads of the men swayed 
their precious standards. Before each legion went a 
silver eagle with its proud S.P.Q.R., standing for Senatus 
Populusque Romanus, — ''Senate and Roman People." 
Fastened to the pole were often silver medals, that the 
legion had won for bravery in some battle. And before 
each cohort, or smaller division of the legion, went its own 
standard, perhaps a wreath or a wolf or a hand. The 
Roman soldier felt all the love for his silver standard that 
our soldiers feel for the flag. It went into battle before 
him, and it was bitter dishonor for it to be captured. 
It was every man's proud hope to see the eagle of his own 
legion and the standard of his own cohort mount the wall 
first or push farthest into the enemy's ranks. 

From sunrise till noon the army marched, covering 
perhaps twelve or fifteen miles. Then they 
halted and made camp. This was no small task, ^ ^o™^" 
for a Roman camp was a fortified town, built 
in a few hours. The tents stood in rows along straight 




« 



ii"y':'iittM 



io8 



ROME CONQUERS THE WORLD 109 

lanes. The general's pavilion, with the altar before it, 
stood in the heart of the camp where the two main streets 
crossed each other. Beside it on one hand was a forum 
or meeting place, on the other hand a space for cooking 
and eating. About the whole camp went a wall of earth 
six or seven feet high with a ditch before it and gates at 
the four places where the streets cut through. 

Every man had his own share of the work. Certain 
officers went ahead of the marching army and chose some 
gentle hillside and laid off the lines of the camp. When 
the army arrived, some men unpacked the tents and 
began pitching them. Others with picks and shovels 
began the ditch, piling up the dirt to make the wall. 

When it was finished that strong camp was well guarded. 
Soldiers constantly patrolled the wall, guards were at the 
gates, sentinels stood before the tents of the officers, a 
trumpeter was always ready at the general's door to give 
signals. The secret watchword for the night was given 
without even a whisper, for it went about from hand to 
hand written on a wax tablet. With all these precautions 
it was almost impossible to surprise a Roman camp. The 
soldiers rested there in comfort and safety. After victory 
or defeat they came back to it as to a home. For even 
during a battle a few cohorts were always left to guard it. 

Men who could build such a camp could do more than 
fight. It was marvelous how many things Caesar's sol- 
diers could do. They could lay up stone walls, build 
bridges, make boats, construct catapults and moving 
towers, — and that in an enemy's country and often in 
the wilderness where they had to begin with the living 
tree. Besides being skillful with tools, they were well 
trained to use sword and spear, to climb walls, to follow 
commands quickly and quietly and with strict obedience. 

Moreover, they were always in prime physical condi- 



no THE ANCIENT WORLD 

tion. Caesar was most careful about collecting provi- 
sions, and very rarely did it happen that they ran short. 
The half day in camp was a blessing. It gave the men 
time to eat comfortably, to make repairs in clothes and 
tools, to dress wounds. In consequence, the soldiers 
were well and strong, and when it was necessary could 
endure hardship — could march all night in the snow, 
swim rivers, eat short rations. It was armies like this 
that had made Rome the mistress of the world. 

Conquest Changes the Romans 

This Rome of Caesar's time, the world-ruler, was much 
changed from the Rome of earlier times. Romans were 
more cultivated than they had been in the old 
Romans days. When the doors of Greece were opened 
Heiienized ^^ them, the wealthy ones flocked there to visit 
this land of learning and of art, and the poor 
who had to stay at home listened hungrily to the tales 
that the travelers brought back, and eagerly adopted the 
new fashions that came from Greece. Those who could 
afford it bought Greek cloth, Greek furniture, Greek 
statues, Greek vases, Greek jewelry that merchants im- 
ported. Greek artists and builders and silversmiths and 
potters were welcomed into Rome. Greek teachers of 
poetry and music and oratory had crowded classes. 
Roman poets imitated Greek poems and plays. Roman 
gentlemen bought learned Greek slaves to teach their 
children and to be their own secretaries. With her sword 
Rome had unlocked the museum, the studio, the library, 
the university of the world, and now she was making use 
of what she found there. 

With the conquest of Asia the fine old Roman ways of 
living began to disappear. The conquerors were not 
willing to stand by and gaze at the wealth of those 



ROME CONQUERS THE WORLD ill 

lands they owned. Pompey, at the end of his war in 
Asia/ distributed twenty milUon dollars among 
his soldiers, and, besides that, brought home ^l-^l^^ 
ten milhon dollars and gave it to Rome. 

In his triumphal procession there were two-horse car- 
riages laden with gold or with ornaments, also the couch 
of one king and the throne and scepter of another, and 
the image of Pompey ten feet high made of solid gold. 
There were, too, vessels of gold and precious stones, three 
golden statues, thirty-three crowns adorned with pearls, a 
pearl-decked altar, and an image of Pompey himself made 
all in pearls. And these were only a few of the wonders 
of that triumphal procession. 

It was a rich land from which one general could col- 
lect so much spoil. Romans were glad to go as soldiers 
or officers or merchants to such a country, hop- 
ing to return laden with wealth. Thus Rome j^^j^^g 
got a taste for luxury. Her women became 
fond of jewels, her men loved expensive banquets in ten 
or twelve courses with strange foods from distant parts 
of the world. Her houses were hung with expensive 
Eastern tapestry and rugs. The rooms were made sweet 
with burning perfumes from the East. Dozens of slaves 
filled the houses of the wealthy and followed their masters 
on the street. Men became millionaires and had city 
homes, gardens outside the walls, and country houses in 
the mountains or on the seashore. 

These country villas often '^ covered the space of a 
moderate-sized town with their garden grounds and aque- 
ducts, fresh- and salt-water ponds for the preservation 
and breeding of river and marine fishes, nurseries of 
snails and slugs, game preserves for keeping hares, 
rabbits, stags, roes, and wild boars, and aviaries in which 

' See also page 98. 



112 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



even cranes and peacocks were kept." Some people, when 
they saw this new extravagance, sighed for the good old 
days when Romans had dressed simply, eaten little, worked 
hard. But most people followed gaily after the new fash- 
ions, if they could afford it, and for the rest of her long Hfe 

Rome grew richer and more 
and more extravagant. 

Generally only men from 
great and wealthy families 
were elected to office. It 
was these ex-officers who sat 
in the senate.^ Gradually 
this aristocratic senate had 
gained more power, and the 
officers had lost it, until it was 
the senate that ruled Rome. 
The officers were only her 
servants. Everything was 
done ''by the authority of 
the senate" — war declared, 
peace made, money spent, 
laws passed, generals sent out 
or recalled . ' ' Senator ' ' was 
the proudest title in Rome. 
While the senate was grow- 
ing strong, a bitter struggle was going on between the rich 
and the poor and between the Roman citizens and the 
Italians outside of Rome. The Italians had no 
.® °°^ share in the government, and the poor were 

of Rome ° ' i . i 

miserably downtrodden. They lived packed 
close in tiny rooms in big tenement houses on narrow, 
sunless streets. They owned nothing. They had no way 
to earn a living, for some were too ignorant to know a trade. 

1 See page 84. 




A Triumphal Arch 

Built in honor of a Roman general 
who conquered Jerusalem. It still 
stands in Rome, though broken and 
much repaired. The inscription says, 
"The senate and Roman people to 
the divine Titus, son of the divine 
Vespasian [both emperors] and to 
Vespasian Augustus " 



ROME CONQUERS THE WORLD 113 

Even those who were masons or blacksmiths or car- 
penters could get little work, for Italy was overrun with 
slaves. There were gangs of them in towns, on farms, 
on sheep ranches, in mines. They were often chained so 
that they could not escape, and they were branded, so 
that if they did escape men could know them as slaves. 
The ones who did rough work were dressed in rags or in 
skins and were fed upon the cheapest food, never tasting 
meat. They were herded in tents and in barracks no 
better than cattle sheds. For any kind of labor it was 
cheaper to own and feed such creatures than to hire self- 
respecting freemen. 

The result was that men who would have liked to 
be plowmen or shepherds were without work. So they 
flocked to Rome, thinking to get help there ; but the 
same hard conditions existed in the city. There were 
slaves trained for every trade, and if men did not own 
them, they could hire them at starvation wages. Poor 
freemen in the city, as well as in the country, found 
little work and grew even poorer. Some of them were, 
of course, lazy beggars and rascals. Some of them 
were noisy and troublesome, making wild threats against 
the rich and starting bloody street brawls. Others were 
discouraged, sullen, dejected. A few were earnest and 
thoughtful. 

Most of the nobles and rich men, looking upon this 
wretched mass of the poor, only scorned them as beasts. 
But a few pitied their sufferings, hated the injustice of 
their case, and longed for some way of righting their 
wrongs. One of these noble friends of the poor said : 
"The wild beasts of Italy have their caves to retire to, 
but the brave men who spill their blood in her cause have 
nothing left but air and light. Without houses, without 
any settled habitation, they wander from place to place 



114 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



with their wives and children. . . . The private soldiers 
fight and die to advance the wealth and luxury of the 
great, and they are called masters of the world while they 
have not a foot of ground in their possession." 

The provinces outside of Italy, too, were unhappy and 
badly ruled. These were the nations that Rome had con- 
Bad Gov- quered — Sicily, Africa, Spain, Gaul, Macedon, 
emment Asia, and all the rest. They had no right to 
in the vote, no voice in choosing officers and making 

Provinces j^^^g Only the few men of the one city of 
Rome elected the officers that governed the world. A 
governor was sent to each of these provinces, with a few 
young men to assist him and an army to give him strength. 
He ruled his province for one year, and during that time 
no one, not even the officers and senate of Rome itself, 
might check or punish him. He had unlimited power. 
He might imprison men or have them executed. He 
made his own laws and governed his province according 
to them. At the end of the year a new governor came 
and perhaps overthrew last year's laws and made new 
ones. 

Under this plan, if a bad man had charge of a province, 
he could do unlimited harm to a country. A certain 
governor of Sicily arrested rich men on false charges and 
took their property for himself. He tried cases in court 
without judges. He laid heavy taxes on the province, 
so that people were reduced to poverty. He boasted at 
the end of his year that he had made three immense for- 
tunes out of his helpless people. 

Cicero, a Roman orator who lived during Caesar's time, 
said, ''AH the provinces are mourning, all the free peoples 
are complaining, all kingdoms remonstrate with us for our 
covetousness and our wrong-doing ; on this side of the 
ocean there is no spot so remote that in these latter times 



ROME CONQUERS THE WORLD 115 

the lust and wickedness of our countrymen have not 
penetrated to it." 

During a hundred years a few great men tried to solve 
these problems of Rome. Of them all, Caesar, the con- 
queror of Gaul, the builder of the new army, q^^^^ 
was the greatest. He marched down out of Beginc a 
Gaul with his devoted and well-trained soldiers, New Gov- 
overthrew the government, defeated the armies ^'■'^™®'^* 
sent against him, and made himself ruler of the Roman 
world. He was general of the army, high priest of the 
religion, head of the government. 

Immediately he began to remedy the abuses from 
which the Roman world was suffering. He cut up the 
public lands and gave them out to his old soldiers and 
other needy families. He began to give rights of citizen- 
ship to men throughout the provinces. He cut down the 
terrible taxes that they had been forced to pay, and made 
the people of Rome pay their share as they had not done 
before. He was given the title of ''Father of his Coun- 
try"; and after his death the senate declared that he 
had been received by the gods as one of themselves. A 
temple was built to the ''Divine Julius," and a priest was 
appointed to care for his altar. 

The change which Caesar had made in the government 
was permanent. The Roman republic of the old days 
was gone forever. For five hundred years after his time 
the world was ruled by emperors who built on the founda- 
tions he had laid. 



1. Make a clay model of a triumphal arch, of Caesar's camp, of a 
walled town. Build mounds and movable towers and battering rams 
around the town. 2. Find pictures of the Alps. 3. Make a tall, 
slender column in clay. On it scratch pictures of Roman war scenes. 
The drawing on page 106 is from such a column now standing in Rome. 
It was built by the emperor Trajan in honor of his victories. 




rii6] 



CHAPTER VI 

THE ROMAN EMPIRE 
How Rome Ruled the World 

In the government that the Roman emperors created 
one man was ruler. He was thought divine, the suc- 
cessor to the ''Divine Julius." He lived in a 
great palace that covered acres of ground. He 
dressed in a purple robe, wore a crown, and 
carried a scepter. His will was all-powerful. But he 
could not do all the work necessary in ruling the world. 
These absolute emperors organized a body of helpers. 
They appointed tax collectors, treasurers, governors of 
provinces, judges, generals. The officers of the second 
rank reported to those of the first rank, and officers of 
the third rank to those of the second. Through the chief 
officials the emperor heard of the doings of all the under- 
lings and visited praise or blame upon them. It was a 
successful way for one man to control the doing of busi- 
ness too large for one alone to carry on. The empire 
was much better ruled than in the old republican days 
when governors and tax collectors had been responsible 
to nobody. 

That empire was practically the world. It stretched 
northward to the safe boundary of the wide gize of the 
Rhine and Danube rivers, and even the far Empire, 
northern island of Britain belonged to it. ^5 a.d. 
Eastward Rome had all Asia Minor and a narrow strip 
of seacoast besides. At the south she had Egypt and 

117 



ii8 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

a fringe along all Africa, stretching back to the desert. 
She owned, moreover, all the many islands of the sea. 

The most northern point of Roman Britain was more 
than two thousand miles north of the most southern 
point of Roman Egypt, and from the farthest western 
point in Spain to the farthest eastern point of Asia Minor 
was about three thousand miles. Even the swift ships 
of our time need about five days to travel the length of the 
Mediterranean, and in ancient times sailing vessels in 
the best of weather took about eighteen days. 

There were a hundred races or more in that empire. 
To-day there are packed into that old territory twenty 
countries or districts : England, Spain, Portugal, France, 
Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Albania, Monte- 
negro, Servia, Rumania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, 
Tripoli, Algeria, Morocco, Tunis, besides little slices of 
four or five others. 

Yet in spite of the great size and the variety of races, 
Rome governed the empire well. The civilized peoples of 
the East kept their old habits, prospered, and were more 
or less content. The new peoples of the West were 
taught civilized ways and rapidly changed their manners. 

In 58 B.C. Caesar had found Gaul a country of wild 
forests. There had been no vineyards ; few grain-fields ; 
The Work ^^^ bridges, but only fords across the rivers; 
of Civiiiza- few walled towns, but, rather, straggling vil- 
tion in lages ; human beings sacrificed to the gods. 
^ Caesar seems to have had the same feeling of 

curiosity and condescending admiration for the people 
that we had for Indians. 

Four hundred years later, however, the descendants of 
these half -civilized Gauls were Roman gentlemen. They 
had houses of thirty rooms with carved furniture and 
marble statues and libraries of Greek and Latin books. 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 



119 



In their courtyards cool fountains played, the water 
brought from mountain springs through great aqueducts 
of stone. There were gardens where the daintiest fruits 
and vegetables grew. Hundreds of slaves tilled the 
fields, pressed the grapes into wine, groomed the fine 




The Cold Plunge in a Roman Bath-house 
A modern reconstruction from ancient ruins 

horses, trained the hunting dogs, helped their masters to 
dress and undress, shaved their faces, and perfumed their 
hair. 

There were walled cities like those of Greece and Italy, 
with stone theaters where the Gauls went to see Roman 
and Greek plays. In the cities were huge bath-houses 
where a gentleman could spend his day, now in the warm 
bath, now in the cold, sometimes taking a sweat in the 
hot room and again swimming in the tank or playing ball 
or tennis in the open court, or perhaps lounging on the 
benches and reading his Greek verses to listening friends. 



I20 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

All these fine gentlemen spoke Latin like their friends in 
Rome, and even the uneducated people tried to speak it, 
though they spoiled the pronunciation and mixed Latin 
and Gallic words. 

What had happened in Gaul had happened in Spain, also ; 
she had become as Roman as Rome herself. Even to-day 
we call the French, the Spanish and the Portuguese, as 
well as the Italians, Romance peoples, because they have 
always kept the mark of their early Roman education. 

But even as far north as Britain, the Romans left their 
signs. Many an English farmer in our time, in digging 
. or plowing a field, has come upon strange gold 
coins bearing the face and name of an old 
Roman emperor. Or he has found a little vase of clay 
or bronze, tight sealed, and upon opening it has seen a 
handful of dust, the ashes of some Roman soldier, per- 
haps, who lived and died and was burned on the funeral 
pyre fifteen hundred years ago. Or he has wondered 
at the low, grassy ridge that runs so straight across his 
field, not knowing that it is the earth wall of an old 
Roman camp. 

Caesar, who twice led his army into Britain during his 
Gallic war, says that in his time no one but merchants 
visited that distant island. "Most of the inland inhabit- 
ants," he says, ''do not sow corn, but live on milk and 
flesh and are clad in skins. All the Britons, indeed, dye 
themselves with wood which makes a bluish color, and 
thereby they have a more terrible appearance in fight." 
This sounds like a description of tattooed savages. 

But in 85 a.d. the Romans conquered Britain after a 
war bloodier and much longer than the Gallic war, and 
Tacitus, a Roman historian, tells how Agricola, the 
Roman general who finished the conquest, set about 
Romanizing the country when the war was ended. 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE I2i 

He encouraged the natives 'Ho build temples, courts of 
justice, and commodious dwelling houses. . . . To es- 
tablish a plan of education, and give the sons of the 
leading chiefs a tincture of letters, was part of his 
policy. . . . The consequence was, that they who had 
always disdained the Roman language began to culti- 
vate its beauties. The Roman apparel was seen without 
prejudice, and the toga became a fashionable part of 
dress." 

Fifty years after Agricola's time the emperor Hadrian 
visited Britain. He found fifty towns built like Roman 
towns, with walls around them and comfortable houses 
inside them like Roman houses. He could go easily from 
town to town with his guards, for good roads crossed the 
country to and fro. He found the towns busy with 
manufacture. Perhaps there was a pottery or a glass 
shop or a mine of lead or iron. 

In some cities he visited bath-houses like those great 
buildings in Rome and Gaul with hot and cold rooms 
and swimming pools filled by mineral springs. He 
visited country houses almost as fine as those in the hills 
near Rome. In the dining rooms he saw floors of mosaic 
with pictures of the Roman gods, with benches like those 
at Rome. There he presided at banquets where food 
was brought on in silver dishes sent from Rome, where 
guests sang Roman verses and talked in the Roman 
language. 

He saw neat farms along the road with growing wheat 
and barley and grazing cattle. He found his four Roman 
legions camped among peaceful people. Some of the 
soldiers had married British women and were working 
little fields outside of the camp or keeping shops in the 
village that had grown up around it. 

Between Britain and Caledonia (that is, between Eng- 



122 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



land and Scotland) he found a line of camps that Agricola 
had built, with a road running from one to another. 
Here the emperor made a wall eighty miles long, with 
watch-towers looking toward the north, with camps of 
Roman soldiers to keep out the barbarians of Caledonia 
from Roman Britain. 

And so Roman speech, Roman books, Roman laws, 
Roman dress, Roman ways of building, spread over most 
of the world. "Wherever I go," says a Roman citizen 
about 400 A.D., "I find my fatherland. I come as a Ro- 




Wax Tablet 



Inkhorn 



Scroll or Book 



man among Romans." And that Roman citizen was a 
Spaniard. To-day travelers can see the ruins of a Roman 
wall on the edge of Scotland, of a Roman bath in Eng- 
land, of a Roman theater in France, of Roman camps 
on the German Rhine, of a Roman bridge across the 
Danube in Rumania, of a Roman forum in Athens, of 
a Roman temple in Algiers. How did the Romans do 
this Romanizing? 

One of the first things they always did after they 
had conquered a country was to build roads. 
They laid them out straight, through marshes, 
over hills, across rivers. So well were they 
built that to-day the people of England, France, Germany, 



Roman 
Roads 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 



123 



Spain, and Italy are still driving over them. In a few 

places you can walk on the very paving stones that 

Roman hands laid down almost two thousand years ago. 

First the builders packed the ground hard, then put 




Part of a Roman Map of the World 

The emperor at Rome sits in the middle of the world, and all roads lead to him. 

Notice the harbor of Ostia, near Rome, with a lighthouse. The map shows 

long, narrow Italy, with the seas at the sides. The top of the map is northeast, 

the bottom is southwest 



down a thick layer of cobblestones, on top of that broken 
stones and lime, and above that a bedding of fine cement. 
Then on the important roads they put, on top of all 
that, a pavement of stone blocks fitted close. The road 
top curved from the center to side gutters or toward the 



124 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

middle to a center drain. It must have cost many hun- 
dreds of dollars to build every mile of road, and must 
have needed great numbers of men working for many 
weeks, hauUng cobblestone, crushing rock, making cement, 
squaring blocks. 

When these roads were once made, they were kept in 
good condition. The emperors appointed officers to be 
in charge of them, to inspect them often, to hire con- 
tractors to make repairs, to collect taxes for the work 
from the landowners along the way. So important were 
the roads that the great officers and nobles and even 
the emperors of Rome were proud to give them their 
names. Thus we have in Italy the Appian Way, the 
iEmilian Way, the Julian Way, the Flavian Way, the 
Claudian Way, the Flaminian Way, named for the great 
men who first built them or later repaired them. 

Nor were these roads few and far apart. From the 
thirty-seven gates in the Roman city wall, roads branched 
off in all directions. They were almost as many as the 
railroads of to-day, crossing and meeting in the same 
way, covering the whole empire as with a spider's web. 
The center of that web was Rome, so that the saying 
grew up, "All roads lead to Rome." In one of the 
forums of the city, the emperor Augustus set up a golden 
milestone with the names of the greatest cities of the whole 
empire carved upon it, with their distances from Rome. 

A man could start from the Roman wall in the north 
of modern England and drive in a wheeled carriage 
through the cities of York and London to Sandwich on 
the southeastern coast. Then he could cross by boat 
the narrow English channel to what is now Boulogne in 
France. Here he would find a road again leading south- 
ward through Lyons and across the steep Alps. From 
here it went on through long Italy, through Milan and 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 125 

the heart of Rome, past the golden milestone to Brindisi 
down in the southeastern comer. 

Here the traveler would have to take ship again and 
cross the Adriatic to modem Durazzo. From there a 
gi-eat road would lead him eastward to Constantinople, 
He would cross the narrow Bosporus by boat, would 
land and continue southward across rich Asia Minor, 
passing through many old cities, following the coast 
through ancient Phoenicia, and at last, after many weeks 
of travel, would arrive in Jerusalem, having journeyed on 
straight, clean, level roads for four thousand miles. 

If he wished, he could continue on down the coast, 
across the Isthmus of Suez, across fertile Egypt, and 
along the whole coast of Africa to modern Tangier on 
the Strait of Gibraltar. There he would cross by ship 
to Spain and pass along the wonderful coast road back 
to Lyons, across France, across the channel, and back 
through England to his town in the North, having made 
a circle around the Roman world. ^ 

At every mile of the way he would pass milestones of 
marble with the names of the nearest cities carved upon 
them and their distance from Rome. He would travel 
about forty miles a day, though people sometimes made 
a hundred, and one of the generals in hurrying to his sick 
brother in Germany went two hundred miles in twenty- 
four hours. We cannot do much better in our auto- 
mobiles to-day. 

At the end of every day's journey of forty or fifty 
miles the traveler would find inns where he could get bed 
and meals and hire horses, if he needed to do so. And 
often, as he sat in the inn, he would see a messenger dash 
up on a horse, leap off, fling his saddlebags upon a fresh 
horse that had been brought out from the stable, and 

iSee map on page 116. 




[I26] 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 127 

dash on again. Or perhaps he would see the long line 
of a legion marching past to a war, with heavy baggage 
wagons lumbering behind. And always he would see 
servants carrying their masters' letters, and merchants 
passing with rich goods on pack mules or in wagons. 
For along those great roads flowed war and peace and 
the whole life of the world. 

Commerce was another thing that held the empire 
together and taught East and West and North and 
South the ways of one another. Many men are _ , 

. , ,.. , ,, , . Trade 

content with life so long as they are making 
money, and merchants and manufacturers and ship- 
owners surely had a good chance to make money under 
the Roman empire. Ever since Pompey had put an end 
to the pirates,^ the sea had been safe for commerce. Every 
merchant thanked Rome for peace and prosperity. 

Another thing was done to stimulate commerce. In 
that day all cities had market-places where buying and 
selling was carried on.- In every one of these the 
Roman officers posted up rules as to when the market 
should be opened and what kind of money should be 
used. And in the market stood a great block of stone 
with basins hollowed out holding the right amount for 
the different measures like our bushels and pecks and 
quarts. Any man who thought he was being cheated 
by the merchant from whom he was buying could take 
his goods here and test the amount. This enforced honest 
selling and encouraged people all over the empire to use 
the same measures. 

As a result there was much world-wide trading in the 
empire. Just as the food on our own breakfast tables 
to-day comes from all corners of our country (oranges 
from California, breakfast foods from Niagara Falls, the 

^ See page 99. ^ See pages 43 and 80. 



128 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

wheat in our muffins from Minneapolis, maple sirup from 
Vermont, bacon from Chicago), so a Roman house was 
furnished from all comers of the empire. There were rugs 
and hangings from Asia Minor. Gold and silver came 
from Spain, as in the earlier time of the Greeks ; tin and 
lead and iron from Britain ; vases and statues and marble 
from Greece. From Alexandria in Egypt came all the 
fine luxuries that far-off India sent to the West — ivory, 
tortoise shell, rare cloth of cotton and silk (for the earlier 
Romans had only linen and wool), pearls, diamonds, 
spices, perfumes. The food on the table was from as 
many places. The wheat from which the flour was made 
was from fertile Egypt or Sicily or the Black Sea region, 
the wine from the Greek Islands and from Asia Minor, 
oysters from the Gallic coast. 

Whether these goods that traders handled were sold 
in Gaul, Syria, or Egypt, they were paid for in Roman 
silver, and everywhere Roman money was good — among 
the half-civiUzed Germans who had no money of their 
own, and among refined Greeks. Now, when different 
peoples are using the same money, the same roads, the 
same ships, the same weights and measures ; are buying 
and selhng among themselves ; are visiting one another's 
cities ; and are feehng protected and safe, they are learn- 
ing from one another, are becoming broader-minded, are 
growing more alike, and are rather sure to be contented 
and peaceful and grateful to the government that causes it 
all. So it was for most of the time in the Roman empire. 

A New Religion in the Ancient World 

While the empire had been growing, another great 
thing had happened : Christianity had begun. Its origin 
was very humble, with one poor man and a few of his 
poor friends over in a little corner of Asia that was owned 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 129 

by the Romans. As you know, that country was Pales- 
tine, and that man was Jesus. When he was born, the 
great Augustus was emperor of Rome, and Rome 
governed the world. That world had many re- ^^ej^^e 
Hgions. The Jews worshiped Jehovah as they tianity 
had done in the days of David. The Greeks 
worshiped Zeus and Apollo and Athene and the rest as 
they had done in the time of Pericles. The Romans 
worshiped Jove and Mars and the others as they had 
done since early times. Egypt had gods of her own — 
gods whose statues had heads of birds or beasts. The 
German tribes adored Woden and Thor and their com- 
panions. Some of these gods were good and gentle, 
others were fierce and jealous and given to fits of anger. 

Christ taught an idea new to most peoples — that there 
is but one God for all the world and that He is the God of 
love, the Father of His people. Christ's followers, look- 
ing at all the heathen gods, thought them foolish and 
wicked, and pitied the people who worshiped them. Be- 
sides this, Christianity promised more after death than 
did any other rehgion. According to the Greek and 
Roman worship the land of the dead was only a beauti- 
ful meadow where phantom people hved phantom lives 
and longed for news of their old beloved world. Among 
the Germans it was only warriors that died in battle 
who gained happiness after death. They would lead a 
life of constant feasting and fighting in the presence of 
the gods. Christianity pictured a gentler, fairer heaven 
for the righteous after death. 

Here is a description of the walled city where they were 
to live : "And the twelve gates were twelve pearls : every 
several gate was of one pearl : and the street of the city 
was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. . . . And the 
city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine 



I30 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



in it : for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb 
is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are 
saved shall walk in the light of it : and the kings of the 
earth do bring glory and honor into it." Instead of the 
warlike heaven of the Germans, Christianity promised 
peace and love and gladness. ''And God shall wipe 
away all tears from their eyes," says the Bible. "And 
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, 
neither shall there be any more pain : for the former 
things are passed away." 

Christians were excited by their new religion, by its 
beauty and wonder, and they were eager to teach it to 
other people. So the most earnest of them went about 
from town to town of Palestine preaching to their fellow 
Jews and saying, "Repent ye and be converted." They 
had some success and gained new converts. 

Soon they began to travel farther, to the cities of Asia 
Minor and to the islands of the JEgean. Here they 
preached not only to Jews, but to the Greeks and Romans 
who lived there. At last Paul, the greatest preacher of 
them all, crossed over to Greece. He preached in Mace- 
don, Alexander's old country. He preached in Athens, 
under the very shadow of Athene's temple. In 

ission- Corinth he lived and taught for a year and a 
half. Meantime other Christians were visiting 
other cities. And as "all roads led to Rome," the very 
center of the world, Christians soon found their way 
there. In many places people listened to the new teach- 
ing, left their old gods, and became Christians. 

Because they were few in the midst of other religions, 
and because they were much in earnest about their new 
doctrine, these early Christians felt themselves held fast 
together by a strong tie of brotherhood. They had fre- 
quent meetings in their houses for preaching and prayer. 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 131 

Moreover, since they were brothers, they felt that they 
must share their goods and clothes and wealth with one 
another. ''Neither was there any among them that 
lacked, for as many as were possessors of lands and 
houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things 
that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet : 
and distribution was made to every man according as he had 
need." So says the book of Acts, in the Christian Bible. 
Officers were appointed to take care of this money and to 
attend to the distributing of it to orphans and widows 
and to serve at the tables when the brethren ate together. 

Other members were chosen to teach or to preach. 
They wrote letters of encouragement and advice to the 
churches that were being formed here and there. They 
went about from town to town visiting their brethren. 
In the market-places or on the temple steps they preached 
to any who would listen. Sometimes the audience was 
interested, sometimes it was angered and was ready to 
fight for its old gods with these men who spoke against 
them. Stephen was stoned to death by an angry mob, 
and Paul was more than once arrested and put into prison. 

But the Christians were ready to suffer for their re- 
Ugion, and they kept on worshiping and preaching. 
Soon they were so numerous that they built large stone 
churches for their meetings, and each church had priests 
to preach and read the prayers. The bishops 
who had charge of church affairs wore beautiful ^^°^*^ 
white robes and embroidered stoles and needed Religion 
secretaries and servants to help them attend to 
their business. Christianity had begun among the humble 
folk, — fishermen, carpenters, tentmakers, — but within 
two hundred years many of the great people of the world 
adopted the new religion, — learned scholars, Roman 
nobles, officers, and relatives of the emperor. They were 



132 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



scattered all over the empire, from Spain to Asia Minor, 
from rich Africa to wild Germany. A great Christian 
writer two hundred years after Christ says : "We are but 
of yesterday, and yet we already fill your cities, islands, 
camps, your palace, senate, and forum." 

Yet to be a Christian was contrary to law. Moreover, 
Roman officers and Roman soldiers were required to 
sacrifice to Jupiter and the twelve gods and to 
Oiristian worship the emperor. Some Christians were 
willing to go through these sacrifices and prayers 
with their hands and their mouths, while they felt that 
they kept their hearts clean for God. But most of them 
refused to sacrifice or to pray to any god but their own. 
Generally Roman officers overlooked this disobedience. 
For after all, in other ways Christians were good citizens. 
They kept the laws and paid their taxes. Moreover, the 
Romans were not very much in earnest about their re- 
ligion. Most of them thought that people should be 
allowed to choose their favorite gods from all those in 
the world, and for many years before Christ, Romans 
had imported new gods from Egypt or Persia. So in 
spite of the laws against them, the Christians grew in 
number and strength and wealth. 

Yet now and then an emperor came to the throne who 
thought it best to punish the followers of the new religion, 
for refusing to serve in the Roman army or for saying 
that they were not subjects of the emperor but of a greater 
king. Eusebius, a Christian writer about three hundred 
years after Christ, gives this story of Apphianus, one of 
the early martyrs in Africa : 

An order had been given "that all persons everywhere 
should publicly offer sacrifice, and that the rulers of the 
cities should see to this with all care and diligence. The 
heralds were proclaiming . . . that men, women, and 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 



133 



children should come to the temples of the idols at the 
command of the governor. Moreover the military trib- 
unes were calling upon each one by name, from a list, 
and the heathen were rushing in an immense crowd 
from every quarter. This youth, [Apphianus,] fearlessly 
and without imparting his purpose to any, stealing away 
from us who dwelt in the same house, and unobserved 
by the mihtary band around the governor, approached 
Urbanus [the governor], who happened then to be mak- 
ing libations. Fearlessly seizing his right hand, Apphianus 
suddenly interrupted him in the act of sacrificing. Then 
he counseled and exhorted him in a solemn and serious 
tone to abandon his error, saying it was not right we 
should desert the only one and true god to sacrifice to 
idols and demons. . . . 

"He was immediately seized and torn by the soldiers 
like ravenous beasts, and after suffering most heroically 
innumerable stripes on his whole body, was cast into 
prison until further orders. There, being stretched by the 
tormentors with both feet, a night and a day, on the rack, 
he was the next day brought to the judge. When force 
was applied to make him sacrifice, he showed an uncon- 
querable courage in bearing pain and horrid tortures. 
[His sides were cut, his face was beaten, his feet were 
burned.] . . . But as he did not yield even to this, . . . 
he was again cast into prison. At last he was summoned 
the third day before the judge again, and still declaring 
his fixed purpose in the profession of Christ, already half 
dead, he was thrown into the sea and drowned." 

If men were willing to suffer like this for the Christian 
religion, is it any wonder that people admired them and 
said: "There must be something good in this religion 
that men love better than life. We must find out about 
it." Weak people, of course, were frightened away from 



134 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 



An 

Emperor 
Becomes 
a Christian 



the church, but many of the braver sort were won by such 
courageous, joyful, loving martyrdom. One of the Chris- 
tian writers, crying out to the Roman persecutors, says : 
''Go on, rack, torture, grind us to powder; our numbers 
increase in proportion as ye mow us 
down. The blood of Christians is 
their harvest seed." 

That seed, the blood of the mar- 
tyrs, was sown all over the empire, 
in Gaul, in Africa, in Italy, 
in Palestine, in Greece. 
And there did, indeed, 
spring up from it great 
harvests for Christianity, so that 
there were millions of Christians in 
the Roman world. 

At last even an emperor became 
one of them. That emperor was 
Constantine the Great. Eusebius 
tells this marvelous story of a vision 
that Constantine had during a war : 
''He said that about midday when 
the sun was beginning to decline, he 
saw with his own eyes the trophy 
of a cross of light in the heavens above the sun, and bearing 
the inscription, 'Conquer by this.' At this sight he him- 
self was struck with amazement, and his whole army also 
which happened to be following him on some expedition and 
witnessed the miracle. He said, moreover, that he doubted 
within himself what the meaning of this apparition could be. 
And while he continued to ponder and reason on its mean- 
ing, night imperceptibly drew on ; and in his sleep the 
Christ of God appeared to him with the same sign which he 
had seen in the heavens, and commanded him to procure a 




A Statue op the Em- 
peror Constantine 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 135 

standard made in the likeness of that sign and to use it 
as a safe-guard in all engagements with his enemies. At 
dawn of day he arose and communicated his secret to his 
friends, and then caUing together the workers in gold and 
precious stones, he sat in the midst of them and described 
to them the figure of the sign he had seen, bidding them 
represent it in gold and precious stones." 

Whether this miracle happened or not, Constantine 
did carry the standard of the Christian cross in his battles, 
and he and his soldiers did have the sign of the cross 
marked on their helmets and breastplates. After several 
years he was baptized into the Christian church, and even 
before that, as soon as he was emperor, he gave Chris- 
tians the right to worship according to their religion. 
Moreover, he restored to them lands and money which 
had been taken from them, and himself built churches 
in honor of God. When the emperor was a Christian, 
when the laws no longer made it a crime to be 
a Christian, thousands of people began to flock into 
the church. Stories say that in one year, at Rome 
alone, twelve thousand men, besides women and chil- 
dren, were baptized. Christianity had become the re- 
hgion of the empire. 

Results of Roman Rule 

Rome had ruled the world for four hundred years or 
more. For four hundred years the peoples of the world 
had, generally speaking, used the same money, 
traveled the same roads, spoken the same Ian- ?^^^~ 
guage, obeyed the same law. They had all ernment 
faced toward one city, had looked up to one 
man. Alexander had dreamed of a world empire ; Rome 
had realized that dream. This long unity made a per- 
manent mark upon the earth. Men have never since 



136 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

lost the idea of a unified world. You will find people in 
the Middle Ages trying to revive just such an empire as 
Rome had created. In much later times Napoleon made 
the same attempt. 

Rome not only made a great empire ; she changed the 
peoples of it, made them all more or less alike. The 
Generous United States has been called a melting pot, 
Attitude where all the races of the world are thrown 
toward together, melted over a fire of education and 
oreigners fpge(^Qj^^ qj^^ recast into Americans. But long 
before our time Rome was also a melting pot of nations. 
The little city-states of Greece had always scorned for- 
eigners, had never given them the right to hold office or 
to vote, had even shut them out of the religious festivals, 
and had made separate laws for them. In the Roman 
empire, on the other hand, all freemen were equal : Gauls 
and Germans belonged to the senate, Spaniards and 
Arabs sat on the imperial throne. Without knowing it, 
perhaps, every country of western Europe has followed 
this Roman example, has generally made friends with 
the conquered or the conquerors, accepted them as citi- 
zens, and intermarried with them. The result is that not 
a nation of Europe is of unmixed blood, as the Greeks 
boasted themselves to be. The modern man, with this 
mixed blood in his veins, boasts, not of his exclusiveness, 
but of his liberality and broad-mindedness toward nations 
and races. 

There were two things about Roman government which 
had a deep influence upon Europe. One was the idea of 
an absolute ruler. Kings of later times never 
J^® allowed their people to forget the old Roman 

Ruler ^^^^y "The pleasure of the prince has the force 

of law." Only in modern times have we been 
able to put that idea aside and to set law above the ruler. 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 137 

The other idea of government that the Middle Ages 
took over from the Romans was that of organizing a 
body of king's helpers, rank below rank, and 
all responsible to the king.^ Every state of Eu- ^^^^^^ 
rope and America and every great business 
firm now does its work in this way. The plan was made 
for us by the Romans, and from them we have inherited it. 

The people of Rome were very unlike their teachers, 
the Greeks. They were not artistic, imaginative, emo- 
tional. Rather they had the minds of lawyers. 
It was a Roman habit to obey law. The Roman °°^^ 
way of doing anything was the legal way. Let 
one example illustrate. For two hundred years, you 
remember, the plebeians fought for equal rights with the 
patricians.^ But how did they fight? Not with the 
sword, but with laws. Slowly, step by step, like a horse 
pulling a heavy load uphill, they advanced, never break- 
ing an old law, but doggedly persuading the patricians 
to pass new ones granting this little right, that little 
privilege, until at last they had them all. That was the 
Roman way. 

Such a law-loving people would make a great mass of 
laws and would be proud of them. The orator Cicero 
said that the laws of all other nations, especially of the 
Greeks, seemed to him ridiculous when compared with 
the Roman law. Doubtless many a Roman at one time 
or another might have said something like this: ''We 
have many laws here in Rome. There is hardly any 
action of a man toward his neighbor that is not covered 
by some law. And yet they are all so just and so natural 
that they never surprise us. We look upon them as 
upon the wise words of our father. They guide us in our 
daily lives. It is very different in Greece : men hardly 

» See page 117. * See page 84. 



138 THE ANCIENT WORLD 

know what their laws are, and so they have to walk 
without a guide. I have heard Greeks say : 'What need 
of laws? We Greeks can argue things through without 
them.' I once saw a case being tried in a Greek court, 
and I was reminded of a group of boys quarreling over a 
ball game : no one of them knows the rules, or they all 
have different rules, or half of them think the rules are 
bad and therefore will not obey them. And the family 
of the man on trial were in court, weeping, and begging 
the judges for mercy in spite of the laws. A Roman 
would never do so childish a thing. He would have too 
much respect for the law." 

The Romans studied their laws as no people before 
them had ever done. Great lawyers gave lectures upon 
them and wrote books about them. At last the emperor 
Justinian had capable men collect all written laws, all 
lawyers' opinions that had been written, all the decisions of 
judges in the courts, all the unwritten customs that people 
usually followed in making contracts and in 
529-534 doing business. All these laws and practices 
they compared, sorted, put in order, restated 
clearly, and wrote in books. Besides that, they wrote 
explanations of the reasons and meaning of law. All this 
made Roman law very fixed and clear, and although the 
empire fell, yet these books have remained down to the 
present day. Through the Middle Ages in the univer- 
sities young men studied them, and in church and state 
people lived according to Roman law. To-day the law of 
Italy, Spain, France, Germany, is Roman, brought down 
through the Middle Ages from far-off Rome. If an old 
Roman lawyer should return to earth and walk into an 
Italian court, he would feel much at home and might 
almost sit as judge. 

Of course Rome left us her roads, her ruined buildings, 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 139 

and some of her great books; but more important than 
these are the less material things that she gave the world 
— the idea of an absolute ruler, organized and centralized 
government, generous adoption of foreigners, her law, 
and the habit of obeying law. 



1. The Greeks loved beauty ; the Romans loved law. Greece was 
divided ; Italy was united. Make more sentences of this sort, con- 
trasting the Greeks and Romans. 2. Greeks wore shawl -like cloaks ; 
so did the Romans. Greeks had low, flat- roofed houses ; so did the 
Romans. Make other sentences stating the likenesses of Greeks and 
Romans. 3. Draw silhouettes of scenes on a Roman road as the 
Greek vase-painter would have made them. (See cut on page 33.) 
4. Look up the following words in a large dictionary and see what 
language they come from and what they meant in that language: 
annual, army, century, governor, judge, language, legal, legislature, 
military, senate. 



PART II. THE NEWER NATIONS 

CHAPTER VII 
THE BARBARIAN CONQUERORS 

The great Roman empire, the civilizer of the West, 
was not to stand forever. Many things were helping to 
bring about its end, but perhaps the greatest 
Rome and wreckers of all were the barbarians of the 
barians North. From a day in early times when the 
Gauls had swept into Italy and had burned 
Rome, she had never been quite free from the fear of 
barbarians. She had met them over and over again, 
sometimes inside her own territory, sometimes outside of 
it. For hundreds of years she had been successful 
against them. The Gauls, as you know, she had con- 
quered ^ and had made a part of her great family, teach- 
ing them her ways, using them as soldiers, making them 
citizens. 

Yet there always remained, beyond her farthest marches, 
a great un-Roman wilderness, peopled with un-Romanized 
tribes. It was to keep out these peoples that she built 
frontier forts and boundary walls and had her warlike 
legions. But the barbarians filtered through even these 
strong defenses. Though Rome kept out their hostile 
armies, yet all the time small numbers were coming in 
friendly ways into the empire. They enlisted in the 
army and were to be found in the emperor's bodyguard 

'See page 101. 
140 



THE BARBARIAN CONQUERORS 141 

and in the frontier forts. Hardly a battle was fought 
that had not barbarian troops on the Roman side. Some 
of these men worked up to the high position of generals, 
and a few even became consuls. The barbarian captives 
after a battle were sold as slaves in the empire, to work 
Roman farms and to act as household servants. 

Several times, too, emperors opened the door of the 
empire to this or that tribe and allowed them to settle 
inside the Roman boundaries, thinking it wise to make 
friends among the barbarians and to use them as frontier 
guards against the others of their race. At one time 
40,000 Goths were allowed to settle on the Roman side 
of the Rhine. Gaul was peppered over with little bar- 
barian colonies, owning land and under promise to fight 
for Rome when she called. In all these ways the empire 
was soaking up barbarians as a sponge soaks up water. 

The Germans 

There were many of these barbarian tribes — Franks, 
Vandals, Goths, Burgundians, Saxons, Lombards — but 
they were all related and had similar customs, laws, 
languages. People often speak of all of them as the 
''Germans." They are the races from whom the modern 
Germans and Dutch and English and Scandinavians are 
descended. Tacitus describes them as they were about 
a hundred years after Christ, in districts where they were 
untouched by civilization. They seem in many ways 
like one of our Indian tribes. 

''Generally," Tacitus says, "their only clothing is a 
cloak fastened with a clasp, or if they haven't that, with 
a thorn ; this being their only garment they pass whole 
days about the hearth or near a fire. . . . There are 
those, also, who wear the skins of wild beasts. . . . 
They select certain animals, and stripping their hides, 



142 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



Tribal Life 



sew on them patches of spotted skin taken from those 
strange beasts that the distant ocean and the unknown 
sea bring forth." 

It seemed strange to the Romans to find people not 
having walled cities. Tacitus speaks of it with surprise. 
''It is well known that none of the German 
tribes live in cities nor even permit their houses 
to be closely joined to each other. They live separated 
and in various places, as a spring or a meadow or a grove 

strikes their fancy. They lay 
out their villages, not as with 
us in connected or closely 
joined houses, but each one 
surrounds his dwelling with an 
open space." Their houses 
were crude log huts. The 
land did not belong to indi- 
vidual men, as with us, but 
the village owned it and di- 
vided it among people as it 
was needed. 

' ' They cultivate fresh fields, ' ' 
Tacitus says, ''every year, and 
there is still land to spare. 
They do not plant orchards 
nor lay off meadow lands nor irrigate gardens." They 
only scratched the ground, evidently, and threw upon 
it a httle wheat and were content with whatever crop 
came; for they did not Hke farming. "Nor could you 
persuade them to till the soil and await the yearly pro- 
duce so easily as you could induce them to stir up an 
enemy and earn glorious wounds. Nay, they even think 
it tame and stupid to acquire by their sweat what they 
can purchase by their blood." 




A Frankish Barbarian of 
Early Times 



THE BARBARIAN CONQUERORS 



143 



They seem to have been lazy people, for Tacitus says : 
" In the intervals of peace they spend little time in hunting 
but much in idleness, given 
over to sleep and eating; 
all the bravest and most 
warlike doing nothing, while 
the hearth and home and 
the care of the fields is given 
over to the women, the old 
men, and the various infirm 
members of the family." 

Very few of those ancient 
German warriors wore ar- 
mor and helmets. They car- 
ried shields and 
javelins and could ^f™ 

•" Warfare 

throw their spears 
to a great distance. There- 
fore, it was without swords 
and without armor and with 
ill-trained horses that they 
met the Roman legion. 
Yet they fought with mar- 
velous courage. ''It is the 
greatest disgrace," says 
Tacitus, ''to have left one's 
shield on the field, and it is unlawful for a man so dis- 
graced to be present at the sacred rites or to enter the 
assembly ; so that many after escaping from battle have 
ended their shame with the halter." They went into 
battle shouting, with their shields before their mouths, so 
that they swelled the noise and made what Tacitus calls 
"a wild and confused roar." 
There was almost constant warfare, Germans against 




A German Warrior 



144 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



Romans, or Germans against Germans : for every chief 
had a band of young warriors. "There is great rivalry 
among these companions," says Tacitus, ''as to who shall 
rank first with the chief, and among the chiefs as to who 
shall have the most and the bravest followers. . . . When 
they go into battle it is a disgrace for the chief to be out- 
done in deeds of valor, and for the following not to 
match the courage of their chief ; furthermore, for any 
one of the followers to have survived his chief and to 
come unharmed out of a battle is Ufelong infamy and 
reproach." 

"Certain figures and images taken from their sacred 
groves they carry into battle, but their greatest incitement 
to courage is that a division of horse or foot is not made 
up by chance, but is formed of famihes and clans ; and 
their dear ones are close at hand so that the waihngs of 
the women and the crying of the children can be heard 
during the battle. These are for each warrior the most 
sacred witnesses of his bravery." 

These half -wild warriors had other virtues than courage. 

They loved their families and respected their women. 

They loved liberty and held public meetings 

German ^here all freemen helped to decide tribal 

Virtues . . . , , 

busmess. Their kmgs and generals they chose 
by vote, and these kings did not have unlimited power; 
in all important matters the people were consulted. 
Such were the Germans who were now facing the 
empire, a very different sort of people from the Ro- 
mans, with much to learn from them, and something to 

teach. 

The Conquests of the Goths 

Before 400 a.d. something happened to set all these 
tribes in motion. The stir began on their far eastern 
border in Asia among the German Goths. A Roman 



THE BARBARIAN CONQUERORS 145 

writer and soldier of that time says: ''A report spread 
far and wide through the nations of the Goths ^j^^ j^^^^ 
that a race of men, hitherto unknown, had set the 
suddenly descended hke a whirlwind from the Germans 
lofty mountains . . . and were ravaging and "^ Motion 
destroying everything that came in their way." 

He describes the ugly, scarred faces of these Huns and 
their strong, short-legged bodies. ''They live," he says, 
"on roots or the half -raw flesh of animals. . . . They 
never shelter themselves under roofed houses, . . . but 
they wander about, roaming over the mountains and the 
woods. . . . There is not a person in the whole nation 
who cannot remain on his horse day and night. . . . None 
of them plow, or even touch a plow handle, for they have 
no settled abode, but are homeless and lawless, per- 
petually wandering with their wagons, which they make 
their homes. . . . This race went on slaughtering all 
the nations in their neighborhood." 

The Goths, brave and warlike though they were, fled 
before this yet fiercer people and came to the Danube 
River, to the northwest of Constantinople, 
which since the time of Constantine had been 
the capital of the Roman empire. They looked into the 
protected land of the empire and thought that surely 
there was safety. One group of them sent messengers to 
the emperor at Constantinople and ''humbly entreated," 
says the old historian, "to be received by him as his 
subjects. They promised to live quietly and to furnish 
troops." The emperor consented, and the Goths "crossed 
the stream day and night, without ceasing." 

But the Romans and the Goths could not live peaceably 
together for very long. The Romans treated 
their new subjects cruelly and dishonestly, and 
soon the Goths rose. In the great battle of Adrianople 



146 THE NEWER NATIONS 

they found that they could defeat the Roman armies. 
Alaric is ^ ^^^ years after that they revolted from the 
Chosen empire and decided to have a king of their own. 
King of the They chose a brave young warrior, Alaric, and 
^ raised him on their shields in German fashion. 

They had made a good choice. He was a man of 
intelligence and power and of ambitious dreams. He 
saw the whole empire open before him, rich in spoil and 
adventure. He gave the word, and a great host of his 
countrymen began to move, perhaps 300,000 people. A 
long line of clumsy wagons with thick, wooden wheels 
started out from Constantinople. In these rode the 
women and children and the feeble old men. In these 
were packed, also, a few necessary things — tools, pots 
and kettles, extra arrows, swords, and battle axes. The 
full fighting force of the nation rode on horseback. 

Such a great number of people needed huge quantities 
of food. They got it from the fields, the full granaries, 
the herds, that they passed. Or, better yet, they took 
flour ready ground and bread ready baked, wine ready 
pressed and meat ready killed, from the houses and the 
shops of the villages. When they tired of journeying, 
they quartered themselves in a town, sleeping in the 
citizens' beds ; helping themselves to food, rich clothes, 
treasures, whatever they would. Meantime, the citizens 
fled, except those whom the Goths captured as slaves to 
serve them here in their borrowed houses. 

When the tribes started on again after a few days, the 
wagons were fuller than before. There were Httle bags of 
money, perhaps, tools, weapons, provisions, a silver vase 
that might upon need be melted into coin. A Gothic 
woman here and there was adorned with a Roman necklace 
or was wrapped in a soft Roman shawl. To the wagon 
ends were chained a few slaves, men and women from the 



THE BARBARIAN CONQUERORS 147 

plundered village. Little of value remained in the town. 
Indeed, perhaps it was left blazing behind the troops. 

In such manner the Goths marched westward and 
southward from Constantinople, There was no army to 
meet them at the famous old pass of Ther- ,05^0 
mopylse/ and they went on into Greece. They Goths 
camped in Athens, they burned the rebuilt Plunder 
Corinth 2 and Argos and Sparta, that old lion, ^^^^^ 
feeble now. Through Greece they went, always burning 
towns, tearing down ancient temples, stripping harvest 
fields. Their wagons grew heavier and richer as Greece 
grew poorer; for they filled them continually with the 
treasures of plundered cities. 

After several years they entered Italy and went through 
the land, living, as before, by plunder. Three times they 
besieged Rome itself. Once the starving and frightened 
Romans bought peace with 'Hhe payment of 5000 pounds 
of gold, of 30,000 pounds of silver, of 4000 robes of silk, 
of 3000 pieces of fine scarlet cloth, and* of 3000 pounds' 
weight of pepper." Though she was not now the capital, 
yet Rome had money and treasures, it appears. Finally, 
the Gothic army entered her gates, however, and plundered 
the city. A foreign army in the streets of 
Rome ! Such a thing had not happened in 800 
years, not since the Gauls had done the like. 

Alaric, however, had no mind to remain in Rome. He 
had his eyes fixed on a richer place, grain-growing Africa. 
So he led his tribes south to take ship, but before they 
left the shores of Italy, he died. The new 
king, Adolf, had a different dream from Ala- ^o<^sTake 
ric's. He had once hated the very name of and Spain 
Rome, he said, and had hoped to erase it from 
the world and to write ''Gothia" over the old Roman 

1 See pages 57 and 98. 2 See page 98. 



148 THE NEWER NATIONS 

empire. But as he had watched the Goths on their 
journeys through civihzed lands, he had seen that they 
were lawless, uncontrolled. He had learned to respect 
the quiet and the culture that he had beheld in Italy. 
Instead of becoming Rome's destroyer, he had decided 
to become her helper. When he was king, therefore, he 
allowed the Roman emperor to keep his office and asked 
him to accept the Gothic army as Roman troops and 
their king as a Roman friend and confederate. You 
may be sure that his request was granted by the frightened 
and powerless Romans. 

So the Goths, as defenders of the empire, marched 
northward out of Italy and crossed the Alps into lower 
Gaul and northern Spain. These, remember, 
were civilized lands, as Roman as Italy. In 
this rich and peaceful country the Goths settled. They 
were not welcome, of course. They were rude barbarians, 
without learning and without good manners. Gallic 
gentlemen scorned them. Besides, Gallic farms and Gallic 
purses had to support them. The Goths even pushed 
themselves into gentlemen's houses, ate ravenously at 
their tables beside the masters, and slept in the guest 
rooms. Yet courage and strength were on the side of 
the Goths, and they stayed and grew strong. After a 
few years one of their kings had a realm stretching over 
most of what is now France and Spain. 

The Franks 

Now, these Goths were not the only German people 
set in motion by the Huns. At the time when Alaric 
was overrunning Greece and Italy, other German tribes 
were invading nearly all of western Europe. One of 
the most important of these peoples, one which put 
the deepest mark on Europe, one which founded two of 



THE BARBARIAN CONQUERORS 



149 
was the 



her greatest nations — France and Gennany 
Franks. 

About the time of Alaric they were on the northern 
shore of what is now Germany, at the mouth of the Rhine 
River. But they were growing stronger, and they soon 




100 200 300 400 600 
Longitude West 0° Longitude East from OregnwlcTi ^Q° 



Showing the remnant of the Roman empire and the lands held by the 
various barbarian tribes toward the end of the fifth century 



began to spread westward and southward into Gaul. 
They were blessed with great success in battle and with 
a strong and wily king, Clovis. They conquered certain 
German tribes to the west of them. To the east, in 
northern Gaul, they conquered a remnant of the Roman 
empire. 



ISO 



THE NEWER NATIONS 




Clovis 

A statue above his grave. As in all 

tombs of the Middle Ages, the figure is 

lying down, with head on pillow and 

cushion at feet 



But Clovis was not satis- 
fied with this. He decided 
that he would have all of 
fertile Gaul. So he took 
an army southward against 
the kingdom that his Ger- 
man kindred, the Goths, had 
founded, beat them in bat- 
tle, and drove them down 
into Spain. In a few years 
he had conquered a great 
country — practically all of 
modern France and Belgium 
and Holland and perhaps 
half of modern Germany. 

The Franks of his tune 
were still heathen, worship- 
ing Thor and Woden ; but 
Christianity was in the very 
^j^g air of this old Ro- 

Franks manized country. 
Become The conquerors 

Christian r r^ i ^ 

01 Gaul were set- 
tled among Christian people 
and Christian churches, and 
Clovis soon married a 
Christian princess. It was 
not long, therefore, until 
the Franks, also, adopted 
the new faith. The way in 
which it happened accord- 
ing to the old story is in- 
teresting. 

Clovis was at war with 



THE BARBARIAN CONQUERORS 151 

certain neighbors, and the battle was going against him. 
No human help seemed able to save him. Then he 
thought of the God to whom his Christian wife 
prayed, and he cried out : ''0 Jesus Christ, ... 
I humbly beseech thy succor ! I have called on my gods, 
and they are far from my help. If Thou wilt deliver me 
from mine enemies, I will believe in Thee and be baptized 
in Thy name." Immediately the enemy began to lose, 
and the battle ended in a glorious victory for Clovis. Soon 
afterward he was baptized as he had promised, along with 
three thousand of his warriors. It was not many years 
before all the people had followed their king's example. 
A hundred years later the Franks had even forgotten the 
names of their earlier gods. 

Charlemagne's Empire 

So this Christian people, the Franks, settled in the 
broad lands that Clovis had conquered. Kings were 
crowned and died, descendants of Clovis, most 
of them poor, weak creatures. But they had ^"^ °^ 
officers ("mayors of the palace," they were magne 
called), strong and wise men, who did their 
work for them. So the Franks prospered and grew 
stronger, until there came to be their king one of the 
greatest men of the world, Charlemagne, or 
Charles the Great. He was a brave warrior and 
a wise general, a descendant of one of the "mayors of 
the palace." By his wars he doubled the size of his 
kingdom. He pushed his eastern border to the Danube, 
conquering fierce heathen tribes that dwelt in that region. 

At the north he carried on a terrible war for thirty 
years with the Saxons, brave German kindred 772-803 
of the Franks themselves. Only after cruel ^•^• 
slaughter did Saxony lie quiet under Charlemagne's 



152 



THE NEWER NATIONS 




Another 

Empire 

Formed 



hand. He won the northern part of Italy, also, where 
a German tribe called Lombards had been settled for 200 
years. Charlemagne defeated them, placed their iron 

crown on his own head, 
and was declared their 
king. 

All these conquests gave 
the Franks an empire 
larger than any 
other that had 
existed for four 
hundred years, 
since the Roman empire 
had begun to fall to 
pieces. They made 
Charlemagne the great- 
est ruler in Europe. 
People thought of his 
kingdom as a second 
Roman empire and of him as a new emperor. 

It seemed proper for the greatest king in Europe to bear 
the highest title possible to a ruler. So when Charle- 
magne visited Rome, the head of the Christian church, 
the pope, ''set a crown upon his head, while all the Roman 
populace cried aloud, ' Long life and victory to the mighty 
Charles, the great emperor of the Romans, crowned of 
God.' After [that] . . ." the chronicler goes on, "he was 
called emperor and Augustus." He was famous through 
all the world of that time. Ambassadors came to his 
court from far-off Arabia and strange Africa. They 
brought him gifts, too, curious things from their lands — 
perfimfies, spices, monkeys, and even an elephant, the only 
one that western Europe had seen since Hannibal's time.^ 

1 See pages 92-96. 



Pope Crowning Charlemagne 

A little decoration on a manuscript seven 
hundred years old 



THE BARBARIAN CONQUERORS 153 

Charlemagne's wars were important, not because they 
made Frankland larger, but for other reasons. For one 
thing, Charlemagne Christianized all German ^^^ 
lands as he conquered them. He built churches charle- 
in them and sent out priests to preach and to magne 
baptize. When he was trying to make Chris- ^ 
tians of the newly conquered Saxons he made some laws 
that seem cruel and unchristian to us, but they show, at 
least, how much in earnest he was, and how stubborn the 
Saxons were. One law read somewhat like this : ''If any 
Saxon shall try to hide himself unbaptized and shall 
scorn to come to baptism and shall wish to remain pagan, 
let him be punished by death." 

Charlemagne made laws, also, to protect and support 
the churches that he built and the missionaries that he 
sent out. "We command that all shall give a tenth of 
their property and their labor to the churches and the 
priests. . . . On the Lord's day all shall go to church 
to hear the word of God. ... If any one shall enter a 
church by violence and carry off anything in it by force 
or theft or shall burn the church itself, let him be punished 
by death." Under these hard laws and the gentler 
teaching of the missionaries, Saxony was soon converted 
and thoroughly Germanized. 

Charlemagne carefully planned how his great empire 
should be ruled. He kept a strong army, and it was the 
duty of every freeman who owned any property to do 
his share in fighting or in helping to furnish arms and food 
for a substitute. The neighbors to the east were still 
dangerous, barbarous tribes. Here Charlemagne built 
forts and put strong men in command of the land and the 
people. These counts were responsible for protecting the 
land from the barbarians and for collecting troops and 
bringing them to the king upon need. 



154 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



He wrote to them at assembly time much as follows : 
"We have decided to hold our general assembly this year 
at the place called Stassfurt. Come with your men to 
this place prepared to go in any direction whither our 
summons shall direct. Each horseman shall have a 
breastplate, shield, lance, sword, dagger, bow and quiver 
with arrows. In your carts shall be axes, planes, augers, 
boards, spades, iron shovels, and other tools which are 
necessary in an army. In the carts shall be, also, supplies 
of food for three months and arms and clothing for half 
a year. And we command that you proceed peaceably 
through our realm. You shall take nothing except 
fodder, food, and water." 

These assemblies were held twice a year, first in one 
city of the great empire, then in another. They were not 
The ^^^y ^^^ *^^ purpose of collecting an army. 

Prankish Any freeman had the right to go. There were 
Assem- rich nobles and poor farmers there, learned 
^^^ bishops and ignorant workmen. Officers of the 

king, who had been going about inspecting the country 
and seeing that the counts did their duty, here reported 
to Charlemagne. If any count had acted ill, Charle- 
magne punished him as he thought fit. Moreover, any 
man, high or low, who thought he had been unjustly 
treated by his count made complaint here in the assem- 
bly and got redress. Here Charlemagne announced, too, 
any new laws that he had planned. 

One of the best things that this great ruler did for his 
people was to educate them. In his early years only 
priests and a few other men in Germany could 
read and speak Latin, and even fewer could 
write. Books were rare, and there were no schools. 
Most people were ignorant of history and geography and 
everything that books can teach us. Charlemagne him- 



THE BARBARIAN CONQUERORS 



155 



self could not read until 
he was a grown man, 
and he never learned to 
write, though he kept 
tablets under his pillow 
at night and often drew 
them out and practiced 
his letters. 

But Charlemagne loved 
learning and hated igno- 
rance. He complained 
that even from monas- 
teries, where most educa- 
tion was, he often received 
letters which were full of 
mistakes and uncouth ex- 
pressions. Now, he 
thought that ''those who 
desire to please God by 
living rightly should not 
neglect to please him also 
by speaking correctly." 
So he set about instructing 
his people. He brought 
church singers from Italy, 
the home of culture. He 
sent for Italian artists to 
decorate his churches and 
palaces. He even brought 
up statues and carved 
columns from Italian 
cities to beautify his new 
buildings. 

He had copies of great 




Charlemagne 

The picture was made much later than 
his time. He carries the globe, as the 
Roman emperors had done to show that 
they ruled the world. He wears the 
Roman eagle on his shoulder. (Many 
modern nations have adopted the same 
emblem.) The fleur-de-lis reminds us 
that modern France as well as Germany 
was a part of his kingdom 



156 THE NEWER NATIONS 

books made, and so collected a library — a rare thing in 
Frankland. He invited scholars from other lands to 
come and live at his palace and to teach there. Not 
only boys studied at that palace school, but nobles of the 
court, and the most eager student of all was the king 
himself. But one school was not enough. Charlemagne 
wrote frequently to the monasteries, saying, ''Let schools 
be established in which boys may learn to read." He 
went about among these schools and examined the pupils. 
At one time he praised some boys who studied well, say- 
ing : ''My children, you have found much favor with me. 
. . . Study to be perfect, and I will give you bishoprics 
and splendid monasteries, and you shall always be honor- 
able in my eyes." 

For hundreds of years people looked back to Charle- 
magne with affection and told marvelous tales of his 
courage and his wisdom. Indeed, he was a man to love 

and admire. His friend, Einhard, says : " His 
The Man body was large and strong, his stature tall. . . . 
magne His eyes were very large and piercing. His 

nose was rather larger than is usual, he had 
beautiful white hair, and his expression was brisk and 
cheerful, so that whether sitting or standing, his appear- 
ance was dignified and impressive." 

He must have made a noble picture as he sat on his 
throne, with his high boots, his long Frankish tunic and 
blue cloak of silk, embroidered with gold and clasped with 
gold buckles, with a jeweled crown on his head and at 
his side a sword with a jeweled hilt. Those were indeed 
worthy ornaments for the wise Charlemagne, with his 
quick eyes flashing over the crowd of courtiers and his 
keen mind listening, learning, planning sound laws or 
great battles or new schools, — the greatest king in Chris- 
tendom. 



THE BARBARIAN CONQUERORS 157 

The Vikings 

During the last years of Charlemagne enemies appeared 
on his coasts that promised trouble for his descend- 
ants. These were the Northmen, from the countries 
which we now call Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. 
They, like the Franks and Goths and Saxons, were Ger- 
man.^ They had not moved with the other Germans, 
however. When Alaric and the Goths were besieging 
Rome,2 these Northmen had probably been in their far 
northern homes for hundreds of years. There they had 
developed a brave, hardy kind of life. They loved danger, 
as the Greeks had loved beauty. They were at home on 
their ships, as the Huns were on their horses. They 
could swim like fish and fight like tigers. 

They had boats much like those of the early Greeks 
— long and narrow, with forty or fifty oars, a single 
mast, and a square sail. The sail was for fair weather, 
the oars for storm ; the sail for leisure, and the oars for 
speed. A boat was warship, pirate ship, trading vessel 
all in one. The men were at the same time pirates, peace- 
able merchants, and useful explorers. In the boat were 
provisions for a few days: at the men's sides hung swords 
that could get them more at the first landing. Around 
the ship's sides glittered forty or fifty shields, hanging 
ready for use. Behind each rowed its warrior owner. As 
a voyage ended, and the ship neared land, out leaped the 
agile oarsmen, dragged the shallow boat upon shore, 
snatched down shield and battle-ax, and stood ready for 
fight. 

An old Norse story tells of one Viking hero who ''from 
his youth up loathed the fire boiler and sitting indoors, 
the warm bower, and the bolster full of down." The hard 

1 See page 141. 2 ggg p^ge 147. 



158 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



northern winter held these men in their homes. Scores 
of big-voiced warriors sat in the wide feast halls and 
shouted applause, as the bards sang of old battle glory. 
But when spring came, and the salt breeze blew inland, 
the wild blood began to dance in their veins, and the 
smoke of the hearth fire was hateful in their nostrils. 
Then they longed to go a- Viking, as we long in the spring 
to go tramping and camping, gypsy-fashion. Going 




Viking Ship 

A modern drawing from an old ship found buried in a marsh. Notice the oars 
instead of rudder, and the shields along the gunwale 



a- Viking meant making a pirate voyage, landing here and 
there to swing swords, to gather treasure, and to leave 
smoking houses behind. It meant fighting joyously 
wherever man or ship barred the way. 

There were scores of petty kings in these Scandina- 
vian countries. Every man of any wealth and strength 
haughtily thought himself the descendant of the god 
Woden and the equal of any man. About 800 a.d. three 
strong kings — one in Norway, one in Sweden, and one 
in Denmark — each in his own country, conquered all 
the lesser kings, and made themselves supreme. 



THE BARBARIAN CONQUERORS 159 

Their haughty foes scorned to remain and be the under- 
hngs of any man, so they sought their Mother Sea and 
went wherever she led. They traveled on the 
long rivers of Russia down to the Black Sea. V^^^. 
The emperor at Constantinople ^ had Northmen 
soldiers for his guard. Coins of far-off Arabia have been 
found buried in the soil of Norway, brought, perhaps, those 
thousands of miles by some Viking adventurer. On the 
floor of a temple in Athens is scratched a drawing of the 
hammer of Thor, the Norse god of war, and on the coast 
not far from Piraeus is an old Greek statue of a lion carved 
over with Norse letters that tell the story of a Viking raid. 

The Northmen fell like locusts upon all the shores 
round about their homes, and whatever land they touched 
suffered bloodshed and burning and thieving. They set- 
tled by the thousands in England and Scotland and 
Ireland. They discovered Iceland and Greenland and 
peopled them. In the year 1000 they even touched the 
shores of North America. They followed the 
coast of Europe around to Spain and sacked ^ -^^^ 
Seville, far inland on a river. They rowed up 
the streams of Frankland and plundered cities, burned 
bridges, and laid the country waste. 

Charlemagne had held them in check while he lived. 
An old Frankish historian says: ''He had ships built on 
all the rivers of Gaul and Germany which flow into the 
northern ocean, and ... he erected solid structures at 
the entrances of all the harbors and navigable mouths of 
rivers and thus blocked the route of the enemy." 

But when Charlemagne's strong hand was gone, no 
armies or boats or fortified bridges could check the North- 
men. The same historian says of a later year : ''A fleet 
of two hundred ships, coming from the country of the 

1 See page 145. 



i6o THE NEWER NATIONS 

Northmen, landed in Frisia [now Holland] and ravaged 
all the islands adjacent to this shore." This army went 
inland and won three battles against the Frisians. The 
Danish conquerors imposed a tribute of a hundred pounds 
of silver upon the people. 

Indeed, there was not a seacoast of Europe that these 
pirates did not ravage. They were so dreaded that a 
special prayer was sung in the churches, "From the fury 
of the Northmen, O Lord, deliver us !" 

Centuries earlier the German tribes had moved into 
the Roman empire and had begun tearing it to pieces 
until it was quite gone from western Europe. The Goths 
had torn off Spain ; ^ the Lombards had taken northern 
Italy ; the Franks had taken Gaul and Germany ^ and by 
new conquests had built them into a great empire. And 
now came these other German barbarians, the Vikings, 
and helped to tear that Frankish empire to pieces. 



1. Compare our Indians with the early Germans. 2. Write a letter 
such as a Roman trader might have written when traveling among the 
Germans. (For more information than the text gives, the teacher may 
select parts of Tacitus, Germania, Everyman edition, — e.g. Bks. iii, 
iv, vi, viii, xv.) 3. What things did Charlemagne do that prove him 
a great man? 4. Tell the story of a Viking raid as some skald, or 
singer, might have told it. 5. Model a Viking ship in clay or make it 
in wood. 

> See page 148. ^ See page 150. 



CHAPTER VIII 



HOW GERMANY AND FRANCE BEGAN 

Charlemagne's Empire Divided 

The later rulers of Frankland, the sons and grandsons 
of Charlemagne, were not such men as their great ancestor 
had been. They did not reverence the wide empire that 
he had built up. They saw 
in it only their separate 
shares of land and wealth and 
power. Instead of working 
to keep it together, they 
fought to cut it up into small 
kingdoms for themselves. A 
father often divided it among 
his sons, and the sons fought 
over the parts. The Norse- 
men were battering at the 
empire on every coast. Kins- 
folk of the Huns ^ moved west- „ ., J ^. r ^■ 

tie sits on a carved chair. In his 
ward, and this fierce enemy hand is the round world marked 

attacked Frankland^ on the '^h^fr,ISr^;f^^he who^e^aX^^* 
southeast. And still other 

barbarous races were pushing on her eastern border. 
Under all these enemies and under the weakness of the 
rulers, the empire fell to pieces. 

Thirty years after Charlemagne's death there was a 
king of East Frankland, or Germany, a king of West 

> See page 145. 
i6i 




Holy Roman Emperor 



l62 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



Frankland, or France, and an emperor who held Italy and 
a strip between the west and east countries. His fine 

title of emperor amounted to nothing. There 
East and really was no empire. Two new countries were 
Frankland growing up, — France and Germany. They had 

always been rather different from each other. 
East Frankland was almost purely Frankish, that is, 
German. But West Frankland was old Roman Gaul.^ 




Showing the three sections into which the empire of Charlemagne was di- 
vided. Later East and West Frankland were extended so that their bounda- 
ries touched, as shown by the broken line 

The Gallic people there had taught their soft Latin and 
their gentle customs to their Frankish conquerors. Now 
that the empire was broken up and each country had its 
own king, they went on growing, each in its own way. 
But in both East and West descendants of Charlemagne 

iSee page 118, 



HOW GERMANY AND FRANCE BEGAN 163 

still wore the crown, and good-for-nothing rulers they 
usually were. 

Germany 

So in East Frankland the people had little protection 
from the Vikings and from the Huns and other savage 
peoples that were settling on the eastern border, ^j^^ 
Every man had to take care of himself by hook Beginning 
or crook. Good fighters were better off than o^ ^er- 
other men in those days of constant warfare, ^^^^ 
because they could better protect themselves. So they 
rose to power. Weaker men, or men of peace, asked for 
the strong warrior's help in time of war and exchanged 
for that help money, grain, wine, a piece of land, or even 
their own labor in the stronger man's fields or service in 
his army when he needed soldiers. 

Such a man built a strong castle with a great surround- 
ing wall to keep out his enemies. It was really a fort. 
Other men built their huts near to it and in war 
time took refuge in it with their famihes and 
helped to beat off' the enemy. By such means the lords 
in all the countries of western Europe grew richer in lands 
and in men. Some of them came to own not one castle, 
but many, and lands as wide as one of our New England 
states, with forests and farming land and wide rivers and 
busy towns. Under a great duke were perhaps twenty 
or thirty other lords only a little less rich and powerful. 

Charlemagne had not been willing to allow such great 
princes to exist in his kingdom. He had believed that so 
many powerful men were bad for the country. They 
were likely to be haughty and selfish and jealous of one 
another. They would perhaps manage their lands in 
such a way as to gain more wealth and power for them- 
selves, regardless of the good of their people. They 



1 64 THE NEWER NATIONS 

would fight, one against another, in selfish quarrels, and 
the fields would be devastated and the people slaughtered. 
They would disobey the command of the king, if it pleased 
them, and would make laws of their own in their own lands. 
They might even throw off all rule of the king, tear off 
their lands from their country, and set up new, smaller 
kingdoms of their own. 

Perhaps Charlemagne's descendants saw these dangers 
as clearly as he had done, but they had not the wisdom 
and the strength to prevent the growth of these great 
dukes. So before a hundred years had gone. East Frank- 
land was divided into five or six great duchies, — among 
them Saxony, which Charlemagne had conquered with 
so many hard years of fighting ^ ; Franconia, the oldest 
of Frankish lands ; Bavaria, whose troublesome master 
called himself ''duke by the grace of God," and not by 
the consent of the king ; Lorraine, on the border between 
the east and west country. 

The kings of Germany had other troubles besides those 
with their ambitious dukes. You must remember that 
German Charlemagne was crowned at Rome "where 
Kings as the Csesars and the emperors were always used 
Roman to sit," and he was called ''the great emperor 
mperors ^£ ^j^^ Romans, crowned of God."^ It was a 
magnificent title, and his descendants and the other kings 
of Germany after them were eager to wear it. That 
crown could be given only at Rome and only by the 
pope's hands. 

The pope had been at first only bishop of Rome, in 
charge of the religious affairs of its few score churches. 
Now, however, he was much more than that. Wise, 
strong men had been Roman bishops; and priests and 
rulers had formed the habit of asking their advice in 

1 See page 151. ^ See page 152. 



HOW GERMANY AND FRANCE BEGAN 



165 



many matters. The church had come, also, to own land 
in Italy, as great dukes or kings owned land, 
and the Roman bishop ruled these lands as p^J^g^ 
dukes ruled theirs, or gave them to nobles to 
hold as kings gave land to their nobles. So the pope 
came to have, not only 
heavenly power, but 
earthly power also. He 
called himself "Christ's 
vicar," that is, one to 
whom Christ had given 
the power to do part of 
His work for Him . Some 
people thought that this 
meant only looking after 
the souls of men, appoint- 
ing priests and officers 
of the church, planning 
and attending to church 
affairs. Other people 
thought that it meant 
much more than that. 
It seemed to them that 
religion and the church 
and the pope ought to 
control all the actions of 
all men. They thought 

that God had given the pope power to appoint and to 
command princes and kings and the emperor, that the 
pope was the rightful umpire of all troubles and the 
decider of all questions. 

A great bishop of that time once said: "The church 
triumphant stands next to God, and the power of this 
church next to divine power, then comes the power of the 




The Pope on His Throne 

A great English earl on a pilgrimage 
kneels before him. Notice the pope's 
triple crown, a symbol which he still wears. 
At the pope's right stands a cardinal, 
known by his hat. Behind the earl is a 
bishop, known by his staff 



1 66 THE NEWER NATIONS 

clergy and the priesthood, whereas [earthly] power comes 
last and is placed subject to that of the clergy and the 
priesthood." And one of the popes, in speaking before a 
meeting of cardinals and bishops, said: "Holy Fathers 
and Lords ! let the whole world now know and under- 
stand that as you can bind and loose in heaven, you can 
also upon earth give and take away from each according 
to his merits, empires, kingdoms, principalities, duchies, 
marquisates, counties, and all possessions. ... If you 
judge the angels, who are the masters of the proudest 
princes, what may you not do with the princes, their 
slaves!" 

Indeed, to get this pope's forgiveness a very proud 
emperor once climbed barefoot up the hill to the pope's 
castle and threw himself weeping on the floor at the 
pope's feet. And every newly chosen emperor journeyed 
hundreds of miles to Rome, knelt before the pope, kissed his 
feet, and received from him as a gift the sword, the lance, 
the golden apple, the scepter, and the emperor's crown. 

Yet the emperors claimed to be the equals of the popes 
in earthly matters. They thought of themselves as the 
Emperors' descendants of the Roman emperors of old 
struggle time, who had possessed the whole civilized 
with the world, and who had been worshiped as gods, 
opes Therefore, they believed that no other prince 

could hold land except as a gift from them. They thought, 
moreover, that special power to rule had been given 
them by God. Many other people believed the same 
things. An old writer calls a certain emperor 'Hhe 
greatest of earthly princes, the wonder of the world, and 
the regulator of its proceedings." This left no room for 
an equal of the emperor. 

Trouble would necessarily come out of such a situation. 
Sometimes the pope for one reason or another was 



HOW GERMANY AND FRANCE BEGAN 



167 



not willing to crown a German king emperor. Generally 
the people of Italy sided with the pope ; then there was 
war. Oftentimes some of the German nobles took the 
pope's part and rebelled against the king. And because 

J. 




The Greatness of the Emperor 
He is in his palace. The word behind him names him "Wisdom" 

the pope was the head of the Christian church, there 
were religious troubles. Sometimes he would not allow 
any priest to perform services for the king. Sometimes 
he would order all the churches of Germany to be closed 
and so would leave the country feeling cut off from God. 



1 68 THE NEWER NATIONS 

His hope was that the people in their distress would 
force the king to obey the pope in order that the churches 
might again be opened. 

The story of Frederick II shows how emperors had to 
struggle against their own Germans, against the Italian 
people, and against the pope. It shows, too, how 
n^ii^"^ Germany suffered and Italy suffered, because 
1250 A.D. the German king wished to be, also, emperor 
His Fight of the "Holy Roman Empire." Frederick's 
to Become ^^^^ler had been one of the most powerful of 

Emperor i i i t 1 7 

the emperors, but he had died when his son 
was a child. The German dukes were unwilling to elect 
a mere boy for their king ; and the pope did not think it 
wise to make him emperor, for the child was king of Sicily, 
and the pope was afraid that Germany and Sicily would 
combine against him. 

So two of the great dukes, Philip and Otto, put them- 
selves forward as candidates. Each of them called a 
meeting of the electors to choose a new king. But Philip's 
friends went to one meeting, and Otto's friends to another. 
Philip's friends elected Philip, and Otto's friends elected 
Otto. Then they tried to decide the matter by war. 
Sometimes Otto won the battles, and sometimes 
Phihp. At one time the pope favored one man and at 
another time the other, and nobles often changed 
sides. So Germany was a distressful place, full of war 
and treachery. At last Philip died, and Otto was 
emperor, and safe, he thought. But before long the pope 
became displeased with him and looked about for a 
new man. 

Meantime the little Frederick had been growing into 
a clever, learned, mild-mannered prince down in Sicily. 
Perhaps the pope now thought that Frederick was sure 
to be his friend, and when the princes of Germany re- 



HOW GERMANY AND FRANCE BEGAN 169 

membered the greatness of his father and his grandfather, 

they were easily persuaded that he was the right one for 

their king. So in spite of the fact that Otto was 

still wearing the crown, they listened to the 

pope and chose Frederick for German king and future 

Roman emperor. 

But Otto would not tamely step aside. He gathered 
together his few remaining friends in Germany and got 
money and men from some foreign dukes and from the 
king of England. The war, however, went against him, 
his friends deserted him, and Frederick was left in 
power. 

It was this Frederick whom the men of his own time 
called "the wonder of the world." He could speak half the 
languages of Europe — Italian, French, German, 
Greek, Latin, besides Arabic. He was poet, ^^ jyj^ ' 
singer, warrior, physician, lawyer. He had read, 
so it seemed to people of his time, all the books of the world 
and possessed all the knowledge of men. His court in 
Sicily was as brilliant as that of an Eastern prince, with 
black slaves blowing on silver trumpets, with a "throne 
of gold decked with pearls and precious stones," and a 
menagerie of strange beasts. He had an elephant, lions, 
panthers, camels, and tame leopards that were trained to 
hunt on horseback. He was a great and rich merchant, 
too. Matthew Paris, the English writer who lived at 
this time, says, "In [one] year twelve camels were sent to 
[Frederick] from the East, laden with gold and silver ; for 
he was a partner in mercantile traffic and a great friend 
of all the Sultans of the East, so that traders traveled 
both by land and sea, even to the Indies [that is, to 
India], on his account." 

It seemed as though this gifted man, this learned 
scholar, this elegant knight, this powerful king, might 



lyo 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



make the dream of his ancestors come true ; as though 
at last one man might, indeed, bind all of Europe into one 
huge empire. And yet this great man's life was a failure. 
For thirty-four years he ruled as emperor, and nearly all 
that time was one continual struggle against enemies. 




A Caravan in the East 



It was not long before Frederick, emperor of the world, 
did things displeasing to the pope, also ruler of the world. 

At last the pope rose in wrath before a meet- 
Frederick -^^^ ^^ cardinals and bishops ; and after re- 
mixnicated niinding them of Frederick's wrong-doing, he 

solemnly pronounced sentence against him in 
words much Uke these : ''We therefore declare this prince 
to be bound because of his sins, and cast off by the Lord 
and deprived of all honor and dignity. All who have 
taken the oath of faithfulness to him, we free from such 
oath. We forbid any one hereafter to obey him or to 
look upon him as emperor or king." Then the pope and 
all the churchmen there present took candles and lighted 
them and afterward extinguished them as a sign that the 
light of religion was removed from Frederick and that 
he must thereafter dwell alone in darkness of soul. This 
action of the pope was called ''excommunication." 
It was a sad thing for ordinary people, when the two 



HOW GERMANY AND FRANCE BEGAN 171 

rulers of the world were enemies. Many a one wept in 
that assembly where the pope spoke. One man cried, 
"Remember that the pillars which uphold the world are 
two: the one the pope, the other the emperor." What 
would happen if one of them should fall? How could 
men know to which to cling ? Some went to one side, and 
some to the other. 

On the pope's side were the Lombard ^ cities of northern 
Italy. These cities were rich and proud and strong. 
They traced their history back to old Roman 
times. They hated tyrants and kings and 0/1^^1 
big states. Each town liked to choose its own 
ruler, make its own laws, coin its own money, carry on 
its own wars in its own way. Every one looked with 
dislike and fear upon a strong emperor, a man who 
claimed Italian cities as mere little corners of a great 
empire for which he made the laws, coined the money, 
declared the wars, collected the taxes, appointed the 
officers. So they banded together, with the pope to 
encourage and help them, raised their armies, and made 
ready for war. 

A terrible war it was ! There were cruel sieges of 
those fine old towns. Around one brave city Frederick's 
captain cut down orchards and burned fields and houses so 
that people had to live in caves, and many died of starva- 
tion. An Italian writer says that for all the years of 
that long war men could neither plow nor sow nor reap 
nor till vineyards nor gather the vintage nor dwell in 
villages. But close to the city walls men tilled the fields 
under guard of their own soldiers, who protected them 
at their work all day ; for so it must needs be by reason 
of the ruffians and bandits and robbers. And evils were 
multiplied upon the earth, and the wild beasts increased 

•See page 152. 



172 THE NEWER NATIONS 

beyond all measure. The wolves gathered together in 
mighty multitudes round the city moats, howling dis- 
mally, and they crept into the cities by night and de- 
voured men and women and children who had come in 
from the villages and were sleeping under the porticoes 
or in wagons. There were many years of this Lom- 
bard war. A whole book could not tell all the brave 
and cruel things that were done on both sides and all the 
suffering and burning and destroying that came in its 
train. 

As the years went on, the pope and the emperor grew 
more and more bitter against each other. They flooded 
Europe with letters accusing each other of a 
Fails hundred wrong deeds. People began to whis- 

per evil things of the emperor. Many thought 
him a wicked man and fell away from him. Twice there 
were plots to poison him. The princes of Germany, 
urged on by the pope, even chose a new king. 

All this unkindness and misfortune soured Frederick's 
good nature, and he became harsh and bitter and scornful. 
When he heard that the pope had excommunicated him 
for the fourth time, ''he burst into a violent rage," says 
Matthew Paris, ''and darting a scornful look on those 
who sat around him, he thundered forth . . . 'Where are 
my cases which contain my portable treasures ? ' And on 
their being brought and unlocked before him by his order, 
he said, 'See if my crowns are lost, now.' Then finding 
one, he placed it on his head, and being thus crowned 
he stood up, and with threatening eyes and a dreadful 
voice ... he said aloud, ' I have not yet lost 
my crown, nor will I be deprived of it . . . 
without a bloody struggle.'" Before that bloody strug- 
gle was ended, he died there in Italy with defeat about 
him. 



HOW GERMANY AND FRANCE BEGAN 173 

For two hundred years the popes had striven against 
the emperors. They had encouraged the Lombard 
cities to rebel. They had tried to make the 
other kings of Europe enemies of the empire, g^'^^u 
They had stirred up the German people to 
rebelHon. This failure of Frederick's was the end : the 
popes were victorious. The empire was in ruins. Italy 
was lost to it. Sicily the pope himself gave to a French- 
man. Germany was a camp of quarreling great dukes 
with no one strong enough to lead them. 

It would have needed all Frederick's time to hold these 
princes under and to bind them into a nation. But he 
had spent very little time in Germany. He had been in 
Italy, in Sicily, in Jerusalem, and had left the rule of the 
Germans to his son or to some other assistant. And the 
nobles had kept up their old proud, quarrelsome habits. 
Indeed, Frederick himself had helped to increase their 
pride and their strength. He had bribed them in order 
to get their aid against Italy and the pope. He had 
allowed each duke to make his own laws, hold his own 
courts, coin his own money, make his own wars, ahnost as 
though he had been an independent king. After Fred- 
erick's time there grew up a ruler of Saxony, a ruler of 
Bavaria, a ruler of Prussia, Grand Duke this and Grand 
Duke that. Germany was again in pieces, and Italy, 
also, was breaking up into little city-states, — beautiful, 
brilhant, rich, proud, jealous. It was six hundred years, 
moreover, before either Germany or Italy became a united 

nation. 

France 

Let us go back to West Frankland at the time just 
following Charlemagne's death. You remem- „ . _ 

1 , 1 • ,1 1 1 T 814 A.D. 

ber that this great man s descendants had 

no large idea of the duty of an emperor or of the mean- 



174 THE NEWER NATIONS 

ing and value of a wide empire.^ Therefore, they cut 
the empire up into three states. The rulers of West 
Frankland, like those of East Frankland, were weak 
men, unable to control their strong nobles, unable to 
keep out the Vikings who were attacking the coast. ^ And 

so in West Frankland, just as in East Frank- 
N bles land, great lords built castles and filled them 

with bold fighting men, sworn to serve them.^ 
It mattered little to such men what weakling descendant 
of Charlemagne in some distant corner of the country 
wore a shadowy crown and called himself king. Yet a 

king there must be, for some reason. So the 

great nobles of West Frankland came together, 
deposed the useless descendant of Charlemagne, and chose 
one of themselves to wear the crown. 

That name of king, however, meant very little. There 
was many a duke and count who had more land, more 
wealth, more castles, more soldiers, than the king. 
These great lords made their own laws, fought their own 
wars, collected their own moneys, each in his own ter- 
ritory. They themselves felt like kings and were unwill- 
ing to bow to another. 

The king of the Franks was also duke of a territory 
which his family had owned for many generations, the 
dukedom of France. Here the king (who was also duke) 
was reverenced and obeyed. But if he moved out of his 
own dukedom into the land of his neighbors, he had to do 
it at the head of an army. Rarely did a nobleman loyally 
open his gates and hospitably entertain his ruler. The 
royal army had to force open the gates and carry the king 
in. Nor did the neighboring counts and dukes often 
supply money for his expenses. He must get that from 
his own dukedom. 

1 See page 161. *See page 160. ^See page 163. 



HOW GERMANY AND FRANCE BEGAN 



175 



But the nobles had chosen a clever family to wear the 
crown — the Capetians, people call them. 
Father and son through three hundred years, ^^® . 
this family toiled to unite France and to make Family 
the French king a power. Their first move 
was to get more lands for themselves. For if a king of 
the Franks, besides being duke of France, became also a 
count of Vermandois and duke 
of Normandy, he got with that 
land faithful subjects who 
would be likely to obey his 
laws, serve him in battle, and 
supply him with money. The 
kings gained these lands in 
different ways. Sometimes 
they married their sons to the 
daughters of great counts and 
so brought the property into 
the family. Once a king even 
bought a dukedom. They oc- 
casionally fought for one and 
conquered it. Sometimes a 
duke died without any chil- 
dren to inherit his possessions. 
Then the king rightfully took 
them. 

In all these ways the Cape- 
tians kept gathering in territory until they owned more 
than half of France. As the king's lands grew, his power 
grew. As his power grew, his laws spread over the 
country, and loyalty increased. The great nobles had to 
respect the king and obey him. Men began to turn their 
faces away from this and that castle and to look toward 
the king's city of Paris as the capital of the land. In 




A King of the Franks on 
His Carved Chair 



176 THE NEWER NATIONS 

fact, the nation of France was made at last — pieced to- 
gether out of old warring dukedoms and counties. 

One of the kings who did much for this growing France 
was Louis IX. His grandfather, Philip, had built up a 

large kingdom. It was Louis' work to make 
Loius IX, ^YiQ,i kingdom feel like a nation, to strengthen 
AD it with peace and prosperity, to teach its 

people to live according to law. This last 
thing was perhaps the hardest and the most nec- 
essary. In Paris, for example, things had come to 
a bad pass. "Because of the great injustice that was 
done and the great robberies . . . ," writes Joinville, an 
officer and friend of King Louis, ''poor people did not 
dare to live in the king's land, but went and lived in 
other lordships. . . . The king, who was very diligent to 
inquire how the people were governed and protected, soon 
learned the truth of this matter. . . . And he aboUshed 
all the evil customs that were hurtful to the people, and 
he [found] men who would execute good and strict justice 
and not spare the rich any more than the poor," and he 
made them officers in the city. 

After that "no thief nor murderer dared to remain in 
Paris, seeing that if he did he was soon hanged or killed. 
Neither [great name] nor gold nor silver could save him. 
So the king's land began to improve, and people came 
there to live for the good justice that was done there. 
Ofttimes it happened that the king would go, after 
mass, and seat himself in the wood of Vincennes and lean 
against an oak and make us sit round him. And all 
those who had any cause in hand came and spoke to him 
without hindrance of usher or of any other person. Then 
would the king ask out of his own mouth, 'Is there any 
who has a cause in hand?' And those who had a cause 
in hand stood up. Then would he say, 'Keep silence, 



HOW GERMANY AND FRANCE BEGAN 177 

all, and you shall be heard in turn, one after the 
other.'" 

But the king could not hear all cases, even in one city. 
He had lawyers and councilors about him. Some of 
these he sent to "hear pleadings at the gate 
[of Paris] which is now called 'The Gate of officer"^ ^ 
Requests,'" Joinville says. ''And when he 
came back from church, he would send for us and sit at 
the foot of his bed, and make us all sit round him, and ask 
if there were any whose cases [we could not settle. And 
if we named any,] he would send for them and would settle 
the matters himself." Into the other parts of France, 
also, he sent judges to hear cases and other officers to 
carry out the laws. And he made strict rules somewhat 
after this style to govern these officers. "We, Louis, 
by the grace of God, King of France, ordain that our 
bailiffs, viscounts, provosts, mayors, and all others, 
whatsoever office they may hold, shall make oath that, so 
long as they hold the said office, they shall do justice to 
all, as well to the poor as to the rich and to strangers as 
to those who are native-born ; and that they shall observe 
such uses and customs as are good and have been approved. 
And if they do aught contrary to their oaths and are 
convicted thereof, we order that they be punished in 
their goods or in their persons." In such ways did the 
king try to make honest officers and to give all the people 
of France fair treatment and the protection of law. 

Moreover he was a great peacemaker in that age when 
men liked to fight. He thought it a sad spec- 
tacle to see " two kingdoms gnaw each other Louis' 
at the prompting of the devil," and "pillage Standing 
and slay each other." He tried to settle by "^*^® 
peaceful agreement the quarrels between his 
hot-blooded nobles. And he was often called upon to act 



1 78 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



as peacemaker between rulers ; for he was respected and 
loved throughout Europe. He received foreign kings in 
his palace at Paris, and he sat in the most honorable seat 
among them. His advice was sought by the pope, the 
emperor of Germany, and the king of England. Matthew 
Paris, the English writer, calls King 
Louis 'Hhe king of all earthly kings 
on account of [his holiness] as also 
on account of his power and his emi- 
nence in chivalry." 

This compliment, paid by a for- 
eigner, shows what the French kings 
had accomplished in two hundred 
years. The king of France was no 
longer a mere crowned duke among 
many dukes as powerful as himself. 
Now when he moved through the 
country, farming people left their 
fields and lined the roads to gaze at 
him and to huzzah. Cities opened 
their gates and decked themselves in 
his honor. When he needed an army, 
the nobles loyally came riding to him at the head of their 
knights. When he sat down to table, great counts and 
dukes carved the meat and served the plate, and knights 
in tunics of silken cloth stood on guard. Once when he 
held court, so many men came flocking to serve him that 
"many said," so Joinville writes, "they had never, at any 
feast, seen together so many surcoats and other garments 
of cloth of gold and of silk ; and it was said that no less 
than three thousand knights were there present." 

King Louis was mild and gentle of soul, fair and delicate 
of body, and very lovable. His kindness and courtesy 
won him friends wherever he went. Moreover he was 




St. Louis 



HOW GERMANY AND FRANCE BEGAN 179 

very honorable in keeping his promises. He was enter- 
taining, too, and Uked pleasant talk with his friends. 
He said it was better than any book. He was very 
religious, going to mass every day, giving alms daily to 
the poor and washing their feet, building churches and 
monasteries, asking God's help and counsel upon all 
occasions. 

Just before his death Louis called to him his son and 
advised him how to live. What he said then shows the 
kind of man he was ; for he himself had lived . _ 

' . 1270 A.D. 

according to the same rules he laid down for King 
his son. "Fair son," he said, "keep thyself Louis' 
from doing aught that is displeasing to ^^^'^® *° 
God. ... If God send thee adversity, receive 
it in patience, ... if He send thee prosperity, then 
thank Him humbly. . . . Let thy heart be full of pity 
toward those who are poor, miserable, and afflicted ; 
comfort and help them to the utmost of thy power. 
Maintain the good customs of thy land and abolish the 
bad. . . . Do not burden [thy people] with taxes save 
when thou art in great need. . . . See that thou hast 
in thy company men . . . who are right worthy and loyal, 
and fly the company of the wicked. . . . Beware of 
undertaking war against any Christian prince without 
great deliberation. ... If wars and quarrels arise 
among thy subjects, see that thou end them as soon as 
thou art able. . . . God give thee grace to do His will 
always, so that He be honored in thee and that thou and 
I may both, after this mortal life is ended, be with Him 
together and praise Him everlastingly. Amen." 

For all his virtues the church declared the king a saint 
after his death, and many people in their prayers still 
ask St. Louis to intercede for them. 

While Germany was growing more broken and dis- 



i8o THE NEWER NATIONS 

united, France, under this good king, was well started 
on the path toward national unity and kingly strength. 
She continued in that way for hundreds of years, becom- 
ing a powerful, wealthy, cultured nation. 



1. Which is better, a large country under one government or 
several small countries? 2. What advice do you think some wise 
old man might have given Frederick II that would have kept 
Germany united? 3. Make a play in which people come before 
King Louis with complaints, and he makes wise decisions. 4. Would 
the study of Roman law be favorable or unfavorable to strong mon- 
archies? (See pages 135-139.) 6. Find out when the present kingdom 
of Italy began ; the present Grerman empire. 



CHAPTER IX 
HOW ENGLAND BEGAN 

In ancient times, you remember, Britain had belonged 
to the Roman empire.^ Roman governors had ruled it 
and Romanized it ; Roman legions had held 
it. But as the empire had grown weak, she 
had needed all her legions nearer the center. When 
Alaric had stormed Rome,^ the British legions had been 
called to fight on the continent, and Roman Britain had 
been left undefended. Immediately the barbarians to 
the north, the Picts whom Rome had not been able to 
conquer, had begun to make raids into Britain. 

The Angles and Saxons Take Britain 

At that time, long before the days of Charlemagne, 
when Adolf and the Goths were settling in Spain and 
Gaul,^ and the Franks were spreading west and south,^ 
other German tribes, called Jutes and Angles and Saxons, 
lived across the narrow sea to the east of Britain. They 
were warriors and pirates. A Roman poet sang about 
them: ''Foes are they fierce beyond other foes and 
cunning as they are fierce. The sea is their school of 
war, and the storm their friend. They are sea wolves 
that prey on the pillage of the world." 

They loved danger and the fight. In an old Anglo- 
Saxon poem the hero, Beowulf, says, ''Ever would I be 
in advance in the host, alone at the front, and so shall I, 

1 See page 120. » See page 148. 

« See page 147. * See pages 149-150. 

i8i 



l82 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



while life last, make fight, so long as the sword endureth, 
that oft early and late hath served me." In long ships 
of many oars and with a single sail, these lovers of war, 

of the sea, of plunder, sailed 
out, as the Vikings did in 
later days,^ after riches and 
adventure. 

To these warrior peoples, 
according to an old tradition, 
the British king 
Angles turned for help 
and Saxons against his foes. 
Come into There is an old 
book called the 
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It 
is a sort of diary of the early 
English people. Here are 
some jottings from it : a.d. 
449. Hengist and Horsa, 

An ornamented wooden shield with invited by the king of the 

to his assistance. 




A Saxon Warrior 



The king 



an iron boss. An iron helmet with a R-pitons 

short nose guard. A tunic with long 

sleeves. Some kind of armor over landed in Britain 

this, perhaps of leather. Leg wrap- t . i . i . r> i . • T 

pings instead of hose directed them to fight agamst 

the Picts, and they did so 
and obtained the victory wheresoever they came. They 
then sent to the Angles at home and desired them to 
The send more assistance. They described the 

Anglo- worthlessness of the Britons and the richness 
Saxon of the land. Then came the men from three 

ic ones powers of Germany — the old Saxons, Angles, 
and Jutes. [They had decided to have this land for 
their own, you see.] 

A.D. 455. This year Hengist and Horsa fought with 



1 See page 158. 



HOW ENGLAND BEGAN 183 

the king of the Britons. Horsa was slain, but Hengist 
and his son Esc took the kingdom. 

A.D. 473. This year Hengist and Esc fought with the 
British and took immense booty. And the British fled 
from the Angles like fire. 

[The news of these successes went back to the Angles 
and Saxons at home and tempted others across the narrow 
sea.] 

A.D. 477. This year came Ella to Britain with his 
three sons in three ships. There they slew many of the 
Britons and some in flight they drove into a wood. 

A.D. 495. This year came two leaders into Britain, 
Cerdic and Cynric his son, with five ships. They fought 
with the British the same day. 

A.D. 501. This year Porta and his two sons came into 
Britain with two ships. 

So it goes. It is evident that hardly a year passed that 
a few ships, full of fighting Germans, did not land here and 
there on the British coast. Probably they were beaten 
sometimes, but their proud descendants when they wrote 
the Chronicle did not tell of their defeats. And certainly 
they won more often than they lost. 

It is a strange, long, slow story, this German conquest 
of Britain. Probably the Britons did not realize that 
they were actually losing their country. In some little 
corner of the coast a few shiploads of the dreaded pirates 
landed, dragged their low ships upon the sand, pulled 
out their long, two-handed swords, and advanced upon 
the surprised farmers and villagers. The Britons, with 
wives and children to save, fled inland to friends and 
kinsfolk. The Germans took possession of the deserted 
houses and fields and sent back home for their families. 
All along the southern and eastern shores of Britain little 
settlements of this sort were being made year after year. 



i84 



THE NEWER NATIONS 




Yet, doubtless, the Britons felt fairly safe in their wide 

land. 

But these Germans were eager, ambitious folk and 

were not content with little spots of ground. As more 

of them kept coming, they 
spread inland and con- 
tinued to push the Britons 
slowly backward. There 
are many such entries as 
this in the Chronicle : ' ' a.d. 
571. This year Cuthulf 
fought with the Britons at 
Bedford and took four 
towns. . . . A.D. 577. 
This year Cuthwin and 
Ceawhn fought with the 
Saxon Horsemen Britons and slew three 

Evidently the horses are shod j^j^gg ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^^qJ^ f ^Om 

them three cities. . . . a.d. 591. This year there was 
a great slaughter of Britons." 

So the Germans slowly enslaved the earUer people or 
drove them back and after about 400 years had all of 
modern England for their own. The Britons were 
mostly cooped up in Wales and Cornwall, where their 
descendants still Uve to-day. They had been rather 
thoroughly swept off their own land. British customs 
and Roman culture were gone from it. It was German 
now. Its new inhabitants had settled down for all time 
to make this new country of theirs ''England." 

This Anglo-Saxon land was not a peaceful place. It 
was a great battlefield for warlike chiefs. A leader who 
had brought over a few shiploads of warriors and had 
won a piece of coast felt himself the independent lord 
of it. His son after him enlarged the territory and called 



HOW ENGLAND BEGAN 185 

himself king. Sometimes there were ten or twelve sep- 
arate kingdoms in that small country. Then, 
again, one man, mighty in battle, would conquer ^^s 
two or three of his neighbors and unite them g^ ^^^ 
into a larger kingdom. Each part would keep 
its own ruler as under-king, but would pay tribute and 
obedience to the conqueror as overlord or head king. 
Slowly three great states formed themselves out of all 
these struggling groups, and at last Egbert, the king of 
one of them and a pupil of Charlemagne's,^ made himself 
overlord of them all. 

These early Anglo-Saxons had one custom that is of 
very great importance to us. All the freemen of every 
village or township met, whenever it was 
necessary, to talk over village business. They ^°s^°- 

, . Saxon 

were simple farmers, come between plowmgs Moots 
and harvestings. They met in the open air 
on a knoll or under a great tree sacred to the god Woden. 
A priest opened the meeting, and the head man took 
charge. These farmers brought up questions that needed 
settling. A newcomer was admitted into the village, 
officers were chosen, a farmer who had cut hay on some 
other man's field was punished, land was divided out 
among the villagers. Every man at that meeting had 
a right to say what he thought and to vote as he would 
upon these matters. 

But this assembly, or town-moot, as it was called, 
handled only the small business of the village. Once a 
month there was a hundred-moot. The hundred was a 
collection of several villages that were neighbors. To 
this assembly all the villages sent their head men and 
four representatives each. There came, besides, the 
chiefs of the hundred and their warriors. This moot, 

•See page 156. 



i86 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



also, met out of doors, on a hilltop or under the trees. 
The men discussed questions that had to do, not with 
the village, but with all of the hundred. 

As the hundred bound together several villages, so 
the folk or tribe bound together several hundreds. And 




The House of Parliament in England To-day 



as the hundred-moot discussed questions too large for 
the town-moot, so the folk-moot discussed matters that 
were of importance to all the hundreds. Here came to- 
gether all the chiefs and warriors and also the head men 
and four representatives from the simple farmers of the 
village. This meeting, too, was out of doors, and was 
opened by the priest. Here great crimes were punished, 
war was declared or peace made, leaders chosen. This 
was an important meeting, and only the most important 
people did the talking. The common men listened and 
shouted when they were asked to vote and clashed their 
swords or spears against their shields. For this, like 
Charlemagne's assembly,^ was a meeting of the army as 

1 See page 154. 



HOW ENGLAND BEGAN 187 

well as of lawmakers, and often the members marched 
from discussion into fight. 

When several tribes had been made into a kingdom, 
the king was accustomed to call together the chief 
men from all the folk-moots to give him advice. This 
was called the witenagemot, or meeting of the wise 
men. 

England has been called "the mother of parliaments" : 
these old Anglo-Saxon moots of rude farmers and fierce 
warriors were her first children. To-day the Parliament 
of England and the Congress of the United States, which 
meet in great buildings of stone to discuss the needs of 
the country and to make laws for its governing, are the 
descendants of that little outdoor assembly with shouted 
vote and clashing weapons. 

The Reign of King Alfred 

Egbert had conquered the English people in war, but 
he had not been able to unite them in feeling. They 
did not forget old memories. The men of 
each earlier kingdom clung together and /^^°^ 
longed for old times and their old kings. Eg- 
bert's grandson, Alfred, inherited the rule over these 
dissatisfied people. After a reign of thirty years he 
left the country united and the English proud of their 
land. 

One thing which helped to accomplish this great change 
was the lovable nature of Alfred himself. Asser, 
his friend and one of his bishops,^ wrote of him, ^Ij 
"He was wonderfully kind toward all men and 
very merry." He was gentle and humble, not haughty, 

1 Long before Alfred's time Christian missionaries had come into England. 
Slowly, family by family, kingdom by kingdom, they had converted the country 
and had built churches and monasteries. Alfred was born a Christian and ruled 
a Christian land. (See pages 297-298.) 



1 88 THE NEWER NATIONS 

as some kings are. He was very religious, rising in the 
night to go alone to his chapel for prayer. 

He loved the poor. "On their behalf, among all his du- 
ties," writes Bishop Asser, ''he was wonderfully thought- 
ful day and night. . . . And in judgment he sought 
earnestly the good of his people both high and low." In- 
deed, his heart was full of love for all men, and they loved 
him in return. Many old English sayings call him "Eng- 
land's darling," "England's shepherd," "Good King 
Alfred." After his time "king" meant a different thing 
to Englishmen from what it had meant in the old days 
of ambition and unending war. It meant a strong, wise, 
loving man, who labored for the good of his whole people. 

Besides loving the memory of the man himself, for 

hundreds of years Englishmen looked to the "laws of 

King Alfred" as the safeguard of their liberty. 

Before his time few laws had been written 

Laws 

down, but men had remembered what their 
fathers had done and called that the law. Alfred had 
these old traditions written, chose what he thought the 
best from the recorded laws of the earlier kings, and 
added a few new rules of his own making. In the preface 
to this body of law the modest king says: "I, then, 
Alfred, king, gathered these [laws] together and com- 
manded many of those to be written which our forefathers 
held, those which seemed to me good ; and many of those 
which seemed to me not good I rejected them, by the 
counsel of my 'witan.' ... I durst not venture to set 
down in writing many of my own ; for I could not know 
what would please those who should come after us." 

Yet some of these laws, because of their kindness, 
sound as though he must have made them. "Judge 
thou very evenly ; judge thou not one doom to the rich, 
another to the poor; nor one to thy friend, another to 



HOW ENGLAND BEGAN 189 

thy foe, judge thou. . . . Vex thou not comers from afar 
and strangers. . . . Injure ye not the widows and step- 
children nor hurt them anywhere : for if ye do otherwise, 
they will cry unto me, and I will hear them, and I will 
then slay you with my sword ; and I will so do that your 
wives shall be widows and your children shall be step- 
children." 

Even in the laws of this gentle king, however, we 
find some things to remind us that, after all, he lived a 
thousand years ago and that men have grown a little 
wiser and kinder since then. For example, some men 
were slaves in that day, and even King Alfred did not 
think it wrong. In one of his laws he speaks of a father's 
selling his daughter as a slave, but only to say, "He 
ought not sell her away among a strange folk." And 
when we see even this kind man freely dealing out the 
death penalty and cruel punishments, we realize that he 
lived in a time of fierce warfare and bloodshed. *'He 
who smiteth his father or his mother," he writes, ''he 
shall perish by death ... if any one thrust out another's 
eye, let him give his own for it ; tooth for tooth, hand 
for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for 
wound, stripe for stripe." 

Like Charlemagne, Alfred was a lover of knowledge. 
His mind was open to learn from any one having infor- 
mation. He listened greedily to the stories of sailors and 
travelers, that he might know something of foreign lands. 
He kept a note-book in his bosom and jotted down inter- 
esting things that he heard or saw or thought. He was, 
besides, an inventor, and he could draw designs and 
instruct goldsmiths how to work. He knew how to train 
dogs and falcons for the hunt. He loved the poems of 
his country, and many of them he learned by heart, and 
sang them to the lyre. 



IQO THE NEWER NATIONS 

With much labor, after he was a grown man, he learned 
to read and write both the Anglo-Saxon language, which 
the common people spoke, and Latin, the 
Lejuming language of books and learned men. He was 
a great lover of reading. ''Day and night," 
says Asser, "whenever he had any leisure, he commanded 
men to read books before him, nor would he ever suffer 
himself to be without one of them." Many of these 
books that he loved were in Latin ; for although the 
Romans had long been gone from Britain,^ and the Roman 
empire had disappeared, yet people had so formed the 
habit of using Latin, the tongue of the world's rulers, 
that it continued to be the language of writers and of all 
learned men. 

But most of Alfred's people were uneducated, did not 
know Latin, and could not read those good books that 
he loved. So he translated several of them into the 
common speech. In one of them he says, "Long and 
much I [wished] to teach my people then these mixed say- 
ings of sweet speech." In another he mourns because 
Englishmen have become so ignorant, and he hopes by 
translating good books to instruct his countrymen. He 
established schools, too, where he hoped that "all the 
free-born youth of the land might persevere in learning." 
And Asser says that it came to be true that many an old 
man of that day "would command his son to read Saxon 
books to him day and night whenever he had any leisure. 
And, sighing greatly from the bottom of his heart, he 
mourned because in his youth he had not devoted him- 
self to such studies." 

Another thing that helped to weld all the men of 
England into an English people was their war* with 
the Danes, Vikings of the same sort as were attacking 

'See page 181. 



HOW ENGLAND BEGAN 191 

Charlemagne's empire.^ These men were also much like 
the Angles and Saxons of earlier times and 
swarmed across the narrow sea as they had ^^®. 
done. They landed from the same sort of invasion 
boats and with the same kind of fierceness 
drove the inhabitants before them. In the same way 
they settled upon the land and began to spread out and 
push the English back. 

By Alfred's time these Danish raids were an old story. 
They had been going on for many years, and there had 
been continuous warfare. Towns lay burned and empty, 
farms lay neglected and grown to weeds, monasteries 
stood ruined and deserted. Alfred saw the need of 
peace. The nation must rest. Farms must be tended, 
and granaries filled. Children must be educated. Roads 
must be built. An army must be planned so that every 
man should do his share of his country's fighting and 
should yet have time to do his own work. 

So the king made peace with the Danes and allowed 
them to settle in a great stretch of eastern England. He 
permitted their own king to rule them, and 
yet Alfred was their overlord. He helped to 
make their laws, he sent Christian priests among them, 
and in every way he treated them like his own English- 
men. It was not many years, therefore, until the Danes 
were as English as their neighbors. They spoke the 
same language, worshiped the same God, obeyed the 
same laws, loved the same country. They intermarried 
with Angles and Saxons, and many an Englishman to-day 
has the blood of Danish Vikings in his veins. 

Bishop Asser gives us an idea of what Alfred accom- 
plished in his long reign. He writes: ''And what shall 
I say of his many wars against the pagans [that is, 

iSee page 157. 



192 THE NEWER NATIONS 

the Danes] and of his battles and of the never-ending 
care of ruhng his kingdom? What shall I say of the 
.^^^^ cities and towns which he restored and of the 

Alfred Others which he built where before there had 
Accom- never been any? Or of the work in gold and 
^ ' ® silver, incomparably made under his direction ? 

Or of the halls and royal chambers wonderfully made of 
stone and wood by his command ? . . . As a master pilot 
strives to bring his ship, filled with many riches, to the 
safe haven of his native land, ... so the king permitted 
himself neither to faint nor to waver, though he was set 
amid the rough waves and various storms of this present 
life." 

The Norman Conquest 

For eighty years after Alfred's death the kingdom that 
he had made strong continued united. But then a 
weak king lost it to a new swarm of Danes. In 
1066 yet another conqueror entered England. This 
was William the Norman, a descendant of one of those 
Viking Northmen who had long before plundered Frank- 
land. 

This ancestor, Rolf the Ganger (that is, ''the goer"), 
had spent all his fearless life in fierce raids on the coasts 
of England and Frankland. He had burned and plun- 
dered, and by his courage had won the headship of 
Normandy ^^^ band. The Frenchmen, in spite of their 
a Great bravery, feared him and at last bought peace 
Viking for themselves by giving him a wide district 
on the Seine. Here he and his warriors settled 
down. They w^ere baptized as Christians. They changed 
their names to French names. They married French 
wives. Their children spoke the French tongue, wore 
French clothes, followed French customs; and the 



HOW ENGLAND BEGAN 



193 



descendants of Rolf, the Viking, were polished French 
knights and rich dukes of Normandy, "Northmen's land." 

The great-grandson of Rolf's grandson 
was a powerful man, Duke William. 
writer says of him, "So very stern 
and hot that no man durst do anything ^^^°^ 
against his will." 

This stern warrior got Normandy and her knights 
thoroughly under his control. He and his ancestors had 



William of 
An old Normandy 
was he Conquers 




Norman Ship 

From an old piece of embroidery called the Bayeux tapestry. Perhaps King 

William's queen and her ladies made it. It is 200 feet long and has 48 scenes. 

The next five pictures, also, are from this tapestry 

had many dealings with the kings of England. They 
had exchanged visits. English princes had even been 
educated at the Norman court. And the English king 
of Duke William's time was the son of a Norman princess. 
When William was a young man, this English king died, 
with no son to be king after him. Then William, his 
friend and distant cousin, decided that he would wear 
the English crown. 

But Englishmen had the fine old German custom of 



194 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



choosing their own king.^ They would have none of 
WiUiam. They elected a man of their own blood, Saxon 
Harold, big and blonde, and handsome and brave. But 
in spite of Harold's courage and strength, and in spite of 
the fact that Englishmen ''sacrificed their bodies and 
poured out their spirits for their country," yet Duke 
William and his horsemen and archers won against King 
Harold and his footmen and bowmen. Harold was 
killed in the first great fight, the battle of Hastings, and 




Saxon Foot-soldiers and Norman Horsemen 

Notice the Saxon battle-axes. The armor is made of metal scales sewed on 

leather 

hundreds of dead Englishmen and Normans lay on the 
field. The English hope was gone. A few weeks after 
the battle, the same council that had elected Harold 
king elected William with great shouting, and the same 
bishop that had crowned Harold now blessed William 
and put the crown upon his head. 

Then began for England a stern rule of twenty-one 
years. Many men who had not fought in that first 
battle were unwilling to submit, and the king had to 
lead his army about through England, putting down 
revolts. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says, ''He let his 

1 See page 144. 



HOW ENGLAND BEGAN 195 

men always plunder all the country that they went over." 
Some rebels and traitors, as the king called 
them because they would not obey him, were J,^® 

1 ic -11 Norman 

thrown mto prison, and some were pumshed -^^^ 
with blindness, some were driven from the 
land." And wherever he had to put down revolts, he 
built strong castles and manned them with Norman 
knights to hold the land. 

'D>KEX>1NTERFGC 

TVS: EST 




Death of King Harold 

He was shot in the eye and is pulling out the arrow. The lettering is in Latin, 
and says, "King Harold was killed " 

"Assuredly in his time had men much distress," the 
old Chronicle says, *'and very many sorrows. Castles 
he let men build and miserably oppress the poor. The 
king himself was so very rigid ; and extorted from his 
subjects many marks of gold and many hundred pounds 
of silver. . . . He was fallen into covetousness, and 
greediness he loved withal. He made many deer parks 
[where he and his friends might hunt], and he established 
laws therewith; so that whosoever [else] slew a hart or 
a hind, should be deprived of his eyesight. . . . His rich 



196 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



men bemoaned it, and the poor men shuddered at it. But 
he was so stern that he recked not the hatred of them 
all ; for they must follow withal the king's will, if they 
would live or have land or possessions, or even his peace." 
To the Norman knights who had come over with him he 
gave rich lands. Gradually most of the old Saxon nobles 
lost their possessions, for one reason or another, and saw 
them in the hands of the strangers. 




Norman Horsemen 

There were different styles of helmets at the same time. Two of these are hoods 

attached to the body armor. Two are of iron plate with nose guards. Notice 

the oblong shields 

Yet King William did good things for England. 
''Amongst other things," says the old Chronicle, ''is not 
to be forgotten that good peace that he made 
in this land, so that a man of any account 
might go over his kingdom unhurt with his 
bosom full of gold. No man durst slay an- 
For he made strict laws against theft and 
murder and all crimes, appointing officers to carry- 
out those laws, and he himself traveled through the 
country now and then, to see that there was peace and 
obedience. 



King 

William's 

Laws 

other." 



HOW ENGLAND BEGAN 1 97 

Alfred and Alfred's grandfather^ had done much in 
their time to make a united England. William took 
more steps now in the same direction and made that 
unity more sure and lasting. He did not allow in the 
land any great earls and dukes who should grow into 
petty kings and tear the country apart, as had happened 
in Frankland after Charlemagne." He had noblemen, to 
be sure, to whom he gave land but never to one man so 
much in one place that he owned a great tract as big as a 
state. And every noble, and every man who lived on a 
nobleman's land, had to go before the king when he sat 
on his throne, kneel, and put his two hands between the 
king's two hands and swear to obey the king above all 
other men. On that condition people received their land, 
and for disobedience they lost it. By such means the 
king prevented the great nobles from having under their 
hands armies of men sworn to obey them. Instead every 
man all over England turned towards the king for law and 
commands. 

William was not satisfied with any guesswork about 
who his subjects were and what land they possessed 
and what they owed him in the way of taxes, 
or about the wealth of his country and the ^^ 
occupations of his people and the customs ^^^^^ 
under which they lived. The Chronicle says : 

''The king had a large meeting and very deep consul- 
tation with his council about the land, how it was occupied 
and by what sort of men. Then sent he his men over all 
England into each shire, commissioning them to find out 
' How many hundreds of hides ^ [of land] were in the shire, 
what land the king himself had and what stock upon the 
land, or what dues he ought to have by the year from the 
shire.' Also he commissioned them to record [this] in 

»See page 187. « See page 163. s Hide •= about 120 acres. 



iqS 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



writing. ... So very narrowly, indeed, did he com- 
mission them to trace it out that there was not one single 
hide nor a yard ^ of land, . . . not even an ox nor a cow nor 
a swine was there left that was not set down in his writ. 




King William's Ship 

Like a Viking ship, with carved prow. The pilot holds both steering oar and 
sail. The gilded trumpeter in the stern shows that it is the duke's ship 

And all the recorded particulars were afterwards brought 
to him." 

This record is called the Doomsday Book, and lawyers 
still read in it to find who ought to own certain pieces of 
land in England, and they respect this careful work of 
William the Conqueror. 

Wilham and the Normans did another service to Eng- 

1 Yard = one quarter of a hide. 



HOW ENGLAND BEGAN 



199 



land. They brought it into touch with the rest of Europe. 
Enghshmen on their island had remained rather ignorant 
of the rest of the world. Of course, kings -v^^atthe 
had now and then married foreign princesses, Normans 
wealthy men had made visits to Rome, and Did for 
foreign monks and merchants and travelers ^^^ 
had settled in England. Yet the country was off in a 
corner by itself. William of Malmesbury, a writer who 
was not born, to be sure, until after the Norman conquest, 
and so never saw England under Saxon kings, gives a 
strange picture of the country before the Conqueror's 
time. If what he says is true, it seems as though Alfred, 
after all, had accomplished little toward elevating his 
people ; or rather, as though there had been so very much 
to do that he had been able only to make a beginning. 

This is what Wilham of Malmesbury says: ''The 
priests, content with a very slight degree of learning, 
could scarcely stammer out the words of the sacraments, 
and a person who understood grammar was an object of 
wonder and astonishment. . . . The English at that time 
wore short garments reaching to the mid-knee ; they had 
their hair cropped, their beards shaven [except on their 
upper lips,] their arms laden with golden bracelets, their 
skins [tattooed]. They were accustomed to eat and to 
drink till they were sick." Moreover, they lived in small 
wooden houses. There were few buildings of beauty and 
dignity in the whole country. 

But the Normans, William goes on, were ''proudly ap- 
pareled and delicate in their food. . . . They are a race 
used to war, and can hardly live without it; fierce in 
rushing against the enemy, and where strength fails, ready 
to use stratagem. . . . They live in large houses [and are 
economical]." They revived "religion which had every- 
where grown lifeless in England. You might see churches 



200 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



rise in every village and monasteries in the towns and 
cities, built after a style unknown before. . . . Each 
wealthy man accounted that day lost to him which he 
had neglected to signalize by some magnificent action." 

ET- h I C • E PIS COPVSCl BVsE'P 

PO' 




A Norman Banquet 



There are no forks, spoons, or plates. The inscription says, "And here the bishop 
blesses food and drink." He is the third from the right, making the sign with 

his three fingers 

Perhaps William of Malmesbury was trying to flatter 
the Normans somewhat. But at any rate, they waked 
up the minds of Englishmen ; taught them the courteous 
manners of the French ; introduced them to the songs, 
the history, and the language of a more polished people ; 
taught them to build beautifully in stone ; in many ways 
added beauty to their lives ; and gave them the habit of 
crossing and recrossing the narrow sea which separated 
them from their neighbors. For William still remained 
the duke of Normandy, as well as the king of England. 

The Good Laws of Henry II, 1154-1189 

William's great grandson, Henry II, was a strong king 
and a wise lawyer. He made changes in the courts 



HOW ENGLAND BEGAN 201 

which brought about in England a justice which other 
countries had not yet dreamed of. Before his time 
priests and all men who by writing their names could 
prove that they had been educated in the church schools 
were tried, not in the king's courts, but in the courts of 
the church. Henry, thinking these church courts too 
lenient, and believing it unjust for some men to escape 
due punishment, ruled that churchmen who were guilty 
of common crime should be punished in his courts like 
common men. He had a quarrel with the pope about 
this, and had to give up a part of his plan. However, he 
made another plan whereby twelve men in each hundred,^ 
and four in each township, should investigate crimes and 
bring suspected persons before the judges. 

King Henry introduced a new kind of trial, also. 
According to old custom God was asked to give some 
sign as to whether or not an accused man was guilty. 
Perhaps the arms and legs of the accused person were 
tied, and he was thrown into a pond or a stream of water. 
If he really was guilty, he would float, people believed, 
but if he was innocent, he would sink. This was because 
water, ''above which the voice of the Lord had thundered," 
being pure, could not receive into itself anything impure. 
In another kind of trial the accused man, after he had 
taken holy water and had been blessed by the priest and 
had fasted for three days, grasped a red-hot iron in his 
hands, took three steps, and cast it from him. After 
three days his hand was examined, and if there was no 
wound, he was declared not guilty. 

Even the wise King Henry kept this kind of trial for 
certain crimes, such as murder and robbery. But for 
smaller crimes he made a more just and merciful plan. 
Twelve men were chosen to investigate the matter. They 

^See page 185. 



202 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



talked with the man himself, inquired from his neighbors 
concerning him, examined any objects that would help 
them to learn the truth. Then they decided among 
themselves as to whether or not he was guilty. This is 
so great an improvement over the old manner of trial 




Pilgrims Leaving a Town 
Notice the town wall with towers, gate, and portcullis 

that we have kept it with little change to our own day. 

We call those twelve men the ''jury." 

King Henry was teaching his people what justice was, 
and they were learning at the same time what 
freedom meant. During a century or so large 
towns had been growing up at road crossings, at 
fords in rivers, around castles and monasteries. 

These towns were small in comparison with ours. 



Liberty 
in Free 
Towns 



HOW ENGLAND BEGAN 



203 



They were circled about and shut in by moats and walls 
with gates and portcullises and drawbridges, like those 
of a castle. Inside this wall the houses were built close, 
as in the old Greek city. There were no lawns, and 
neighbors had only a wall between them. The streets 
were narrow, with often 
not enough room for two 
carts to pass. Yet space 
was always saved in the 
heart of the city for 
the market-place, or the 
churchyard, where all the 
men of the town could 
come together for tradfe 
or talk or war. The peo- 
ple of this close-packed 
little town were most of 
them common folk. And 
wherever it was, the land 
on which it was built be- 
longed to some lord — 
noble or bishop or king. 
To him the town owed 
taxes and obedience. 

Often this lord was 
hard upon the people. 
He demanded too much 
money from them. He quartered his soldiers in their 
houses. He cruelly punished men for little misdeeds. 
He threw innocent men into prison, that he might get 
ransoms for them. Perhaps he made them pay heavy 
toll for using a bridge or a road. Perhaps he taxed them 
for setting up stalls in the market-place. Perhaps he 
compelled the people to go many miles to his castle in 




Paying Toll on a Bridge 

The man on the right is collecting toll for 
the lord who owns the bridge. The 
country people are bringing their cattle, 
pigs, and lambs to sell at the town shown 
in the background. From an old stained- 
glass window in a Belgian church 



204 THE NEWER NATIONS 

order to try law cases, thus wasting their time and spoil- 
ing their business. 

Under such circumstances the people would talk these 
matters over, and after much discussion might decide to 
buy from their lord, if they could, the privilege of being 
free from these troubles. They would send a few of their 
number to the lord to say: "Our lord, if you will do so 
and so for us, we will promise to pay you yearly such and 
such a sum of money. We will write out this promise of 
ours on a parchment and will sign it, if you will likewise 
write out and sign your promise." Often the lord, because 
he needed money to go to war or to repair his castle or to 
prepare a tournament, would be glad to sign such a charter. 

Here are the words of one granted by John, king of 
England, s to a town called Helleston : "Know that we 
have granted and by this our charter have confirmed that 
our town of Helleston shall be a free town and that our 
burgesses of this town shall have a gild-merchant ^ and 
shall be free from tolls throughout our realm ; whether the 
tolls be for crossing a bridge or using a road or for having 
a stall in a market or for loading a ship or for the use of 
the soil. . . . We grant also to them that their law- 
cases concerning the matters and tenures of their town 
shall be heard only within the walls of their own town." 

When a village was governed by its lord, it had no 
English- voice in its own ruling. But in these free towns 
men like Helleston the townsmen met, elected offi- 

Leam ^^^.^ ^^^ aldermen, collected money to pay town 

about 1 T 

Local Self- expenses, and made market rules and police 
govern- laws. Men in such a town would learn to ap- 
ment preciate their rights as common people, to 

rule themselves, to think about the duty of a lord and a 
king to his people. 

» See page 263. 



HOW ENGLAND BEGAN 205 

By the time King Henry died, therefore, EngHshmen 
had learned much about good government. There still 
existed the memory of Anglo-Saxon free talk and law- 
making in town-moot and folk-moot.^ Men had come 
to expect crimes to be searched out and punished, and 
accused persons to be justly tried. The people of many 
towns had gained freemen's charters and were ruling 
themselves. And men still remembered the good King 
Al^d as an ideal ruler with whom to compare others. 
^After Henry II came two kings of a very different sort. 
One of his sons, Richard I, Lionheart, was a dashing 
knight and a hero of brave stories, but he was 
not a good king. He loved war and glory ^^<^^r<* 
above all things. He had continual struggles ii8g_iigg 
in France, where he was a mighty duke. He 
went far over seas to Jerusalem to fight. So, in order to 
support armies and hire ships and build castles, he laid 
heavy taxes on Englishmen. He unjustly took wool and 
holy dishes of gold and silver from rich monasteries. He 
was once captured and put into prison by his enemy, the 
German emperor, and in order to buy his freedom every 
man in England was forced to give one quarter of all his 
movable goods — horses and cattle, plows and wagons and 
crops ; furniture, clothes, and jewels ; the stocks in mer- 
chants' shops. The people groaned under this heavy 
taxing. 

King John and the Great Charter 

After Richard, came his brother John. He had been 

• a rebel against his father and against his brother. Over 

and over again men have called him the worst 

1199— 1210 
king England ever had. He was a selfish man, 

cruel and wicked. He had a furious temper. He was 

extravagant and eager for money. Again and again he 

1 See pages 185-186. 



2o6 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



took immense sums from rich and from poor, from church 
and from people. Men dared not refuse to pay, for 
the king had countless ways of wringing the 
^"^^, money from them. Roger of Wendover, an old 

Cruel Acts chronicler, tells of a time when ''by the king's 
order, all the Jews throughout England of both 
sexes were seized, imprisoned, and tortured severely, in 
order to do the king's will with their 
money ; some of them after being tor- 
tured gave up all they had and prom- 
ised more, that they might thus es- 
cape." 

People were thrown into prison for 
no worse crime than that they were 
enemies of the king. A certain church- 
man who had whispered against him 
was imprisoned, and a heavy cap of 
lead put upon his head so that the 
weight slowly killed him. The wife 
and son and daughter of a great Irish 
noble who had rebelled against John 
were loaded with chains, thrown into 
prison, and there starved to death. In 
many less terrible ways people were 
annoyed and abused. Roger says that 
while John was once having a quarrel 
with the church ''religious men and 
. when found traveling on the road, 
were dragged from their horses, robbed, and basely ill- 
treated by the agents of the king." Again the chronicler 
says : "There were at this time in the kingdom of Eng- 
land many nobles, whose wives and daughters the king 
had insulted . . . others whom he had by unjust exac- 
tions reduced to the extreme of poverty; some whose 




King John 

Notice the long toes of 
the shoes. They were 
sometimes turned up 
and fastened to the 
girdle with chains 



other persons 



HOW ENGLAND BEGAN 



207 



parents and kindred he had exiled, converting their inheri- 
tances to his own use ; thus the said king's enemies were 
as numerous as his nobles." And the chronicler might 
have said, ''And ^ 

among church- 
men and common 
people there was 
none that loved 
him." 

At last these 
E ngl is hm en, 
whose ancestors 
had been long 
training in the 
moots of Anglo- 
Saxon times, un- 
der the wise rule 
of Alfred, in the 
courts and under 
the just laws of Henry II, and in the self-government of 
the free towns, determined to endure John's cruelty and 
injustice no longer. Stephen Langton, a great archbishop, 
became the leader of the revolt. When many 
people were one day met in church to hear V^^ 
mass, he called aside a few barons who were Rebel 
there and said, according to Roger of Wendover : 
" 'A charter of Henry I, king of England, has just now 
been found, by which you may if you wish it, recall your 
long lost rights, and your former conditions.' And plac- 
ing a paper in the midst of them he ordered it to be read 
aloud -for all to hear." 

This Henry I was the great-grandfather of John and 
son of William the Conqueror. He had drawn up a char- 
ter in which he had promised to rule justly according to 




The Castle of an English Baron 



2o8 THE NEWER NATIONS 

the old Saxon laws and not to demand so many and so 

heavy payments of money as his father had done, but 

only those dues that every man owed his lord. 

arter o jjgnj-y ]^a(j j^gp^, hig promises, and this charter 
had been a precious document. But here was his 
wicked great-grandson, John, ruling as though no such 
promise had ever been made to the English people. 

Imagine the joy of these troubled barons when they 
read in this yellow old parchment the promises that a 
king had made to their ancestors a hundred years before ! 
"When this paper had been read and understood by the 
barons who heard it, " Roger says, ' ' they were much pleased 
with it, and all of them, in the archbishop's presence, swore 
that when they saw a fit opportunity, they would stand 
up for their rights, if necessary would die for them." 

At Easter they gathered, 2000 knights besides common 
horsemen and foot soldiers, and sent their paper to the 
^jjg king. But it was no longer merely the old 

Barons charter of King Henry. With discussion men 
Defy the had come to see more clearly the rights of the 

^ people and the duties of a king. So it was a 

new, a larger and more precious charter that they were 
asking their king to sign. When John heard it, he cried 
out: "Why don't they ask for my kingdom? I will 
never grant such liberties as will make me a slave." 

So the messenger carried the charter and the king's 
refusal back to the waiting army. Then that grim host 
began to besiege castles and towns that belonged to the 
king. London and a few other cities opened their gates 
and welcomed in this "army of God and the Holy Church," 
because it was fighting for the people's rights. Barons 
and common men came flocking to the army from all sides 
until, the chronicler says, King John was deserted by 
almost every one and hardly had seven knights out of all 



HOW ENGLAND BEGAN 209 

who had ever served him. Every face that he looked 
upon looked back with stern hate. He could not get his 
own people to serve as his soldiers against this army of 
Englishmen. He could get no money from his rebellious 
subjects to hire a foreign army. After sixteen years of 
cheating, of greed and cruelty, he was now trapped by 
his own sins. No man could more hate to be beaten, 
and John was all the time in his heart swearing ven- 
geance. Yet he saw that he must sign. So he sent a 
message to the barons asking them to appoint a time 
and place. 

On the fifteenth of June, 1215, the two parties met at 
Runnymede. The king's attendants were on one side 
of the river. On the other side was drawn up 
"the army of God and the Holy Church," and ^T^" 

11-1 1 • • mede 

the chronicler says that it is not necessary to 
tell who they were, ''since the whole nobility of England 
were now assembled together in numbers not to be com- 
puted." On a small island in the river King John met 
twenty-five of the barons and under the eyes of the 
determined army on the banks signed the Great Charter. 
Nor did he sign it for himself alone, but, as he writes, 
''for us and our heirs forever." 

Probably the old barons were not thinking of future 
ages but of their own time and their own troubles. Yet 
Englishmen who have come after them through 
seven hundred years have more and more re- _, ® ^^^^ 
vered that old charter. It has been the battle- 
cry of men fighting for liberty. It has been called the 
bulwark of English freedom, a part of the " Bible of the 
English constitution," " a common blessing of the whole 
people." Englishmen still look back to June fifteenth 
as the birthday of their liberties. 

There are sixty-three articles in that old charter. 



210 THE NEWER NATIONS 

Some of them concern matters that no longer interest 
us. But some of them are the most precious possessions 
of to-day: for example, the beginning of the people's 
right to control the taxing of themselves. The king 
promises that when he desires to levy a tax for certain 
purposes, he will call the bishops and barons and all 
men who hold land from him to a meeting where the 
matter shall be discussed. He distinctly says that no 
tax shall be imposed (outside of certain dues that every- 
body had for centuries considered just) ''unless with the 
consent of the Common Council of our realm." Five 
hundred years later, when Englishmen in the American 
colonies said to the English king, "No taxation without 
representation," they felt that they were but repeating 
what the nobles had asked and won in the Great Charter. 

Most important of all the sections of the charter, per- 
haps, are these two : ''No freeman shall be taken, or im- 
prisoned, or disseized, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any 
way harmed . . . save by the lawful judgment of his 
peers or by the law of the land. . . . To none will we 
sell, to none deny or delay, right or justice." As we read 
the words, we can see the stern faces of the men whose 
relatives and friends John had outraged, exiled, robbed, 
thrown into prison to die or to be bought out by their 
wealthy families. In later times when men were being 
oppressed and imprisoned by their kings, they cried out 
against them as promise-breakers, for they felt that when 
their ancestors had forced King John to sign this article, 
they had gained " full protection for property and person 
to every human being that breathes English air." 

It was, to be sure, the nobles who chiefly made up the 
strength of "the army of God and the Holy Church" and 
who gained most by the charter. Yet there were com- 
moners, too, in the army — merchants from the free towns, 



HOW ENGLAND BEGAN 



211 



probably, and fanners from the more prosperous districts. 
For a certain section promised justice to the people in 
the matter of fines for breaking the law — small fines 
for small faults. And no matter what the fault or what 
the fine, men were to be left the means by which they 
earned their bread — his land to the farmer, his merchan- 
dise to the merchant, his wagon to the poor peasant. 

Moreover, there was granted safety for merchants, 
foreigners often, whom John had been used to annoy and 
rob. "All merchants may safely and securely go out of 
England and come into England, and also delay and pass 
through England, as well by land as by water, for the 
purpose of buying and selling, free from all evil taxes, sub- 
ject to the ancient and 
right customs." 

Some of the free towns, 
too, gained privileges. 
"And the city of Lon- 
don," says the charter, 
' ' shall have all its old liber- 
ties and free customs as 
well by land as by water. 
Moreover, we will and 
grant that all other cities 
and boroughs, and towns 
and ports shall have all 
their liberties and free 
customs." 

The promises made in 
the charter were impor- 
tant, but the fact that there was a charter at all was more 
important. These men had not bought it with money, as 
so many towns had done : they had got it at the point of the 
sword. They had forced a king to do their bidding, to rec- 




An English Merchant in Rich 
Clothes 



212 THE NEWER NATIONS 

ognize their rights. John had signed against his will. He 
had left the green meadow of Runnymede, curs- 
Results of ^j^g ^^^ tearing his hair and raging like a mad- 
Charter man. Yet the charter stood, in spite of his fury. 
The people had made a weapon with which to 
control their kings. 

Thus, while Germany was falling to pieces and France 
was building up the power of the king, England was 
slowly preparing for the power of the people, was develop- 
ing a popular government. 



1. In what ways were Alfred and Charlemagne alike? In what 
ways were they different? Which do you admire more ? Keep a note- 
book for a few days, as King Alfred did. (See page 189.) 2. Make 
a list of ways in which England suffered from the Norman conquest, 
and a list of benefits that followed. 3. Why would a town grow up 
at a cross-road or a river ford ? Write the imaginary history of such 
a town, telling how it began and how it grew. (For information about 
the growth of towns, see AUsopp, Introduction to English Industrial 
History, pp. 59-63, or Guest, Social History of England, pp. 60-63.) 
4. Try to find out what helped the growth of your own town (or the 
one nearest to you). 5. What one of the Anglo-Saxon moots was 
most like our state legislature? What one was like our Congress? 
What one was like the Athenian assembly? (See page 51.) 6. Some 
of our American towns now hold town meetings like the Anglo-Saxon 
town-moot. Hold such a meeting to discuss some class project, — 
organizing a loan library, planning a Saturday class picnic. 7. Appoint 
a judge and a jury of twelve, like King Henry's jury, and let them try 
a classmate for the imaginary breaking of some law. What is the use- 
fulness of the jury? 8. Some of the girls would get pleasure and 
profit from embroidering on linen pictures like those of the Bayeux 
tapestry. (See pictures on pages 193 to 200.) 



20° 

EUROPE 

ABOUT THE CLOSE OF THE 

TWELFTH CENTURY 

SCALE OF MILES 

6 50 100 200 300 400 500 

Boundary of feudal dominions 
tn France held hy the English king. 



.^. 




>^C 



'^(jla 



T: 



EO R o 



0-' 



I'Oa 



'C'Af 



'"^^^ 



f^f^ox 



^"ledo 



'Wor'^-'-.i=' 



5 



•°^i^df. 



Af 



^ m m 



^0=^S 



e d 



10° Longitude Weist from Ureemvicb 0° Longitude East from Greenwich 10° 




Beginning of a Tournament 



The knights' faces are covered, but the pictures or "arms" on the shields show 
who they are. So do the embroidered pennons held by the herald 



CHAPTER X 



CASTLE LIFE 



The time from Charlemagne to Frederick II and St. 
Louis and King John is a part of what men call the 
Middle Ages. In those days life in all parts of 
western Europe was much alike, and it was in _. 
some ways so different from our own that it 
seems very interesting and exciting. There were three 
classes : the nobles, the churchmen, the common people. 

The nobles owned the land and were wealthy ; most of 
the common people worked the land and were poor. The 
nobles looked back with pride to their ancestors, who for 
generations had been landowners and fighters ; while the 
common man's ancestors had been poor farmers. The 
churchmen were drawn from both classes. Often a noble 
entered the church and became an abbot or a bishop, 
ruling church land and lowly churchmen as his fathers 
had ruled their own land and people. Common men, also, 
entered the church and sometimes rose to high places, but 

213 



214 THE NEWER NATIONS 

more often worked on the church farms or did humble serv- 
ice, just as they had done before for their earthly lord. 

Feudalism, or How Men Got Land 

Why was it that the men of pride and power and land 
were not the men who worked but the men who fought? 
Think of that savage time after Charlemagne's death, and 
perhaps the question will be answered.^ Men's lives were 
in danger every day from fierce Vikings or Huns or their 
own lawless neighbors. What man, then, would be most 
successful? The man who with a strong arm could pro- 
tect himself. Who could get possession of horses and 
riches and land? The man who was strong and clever 
enough to take them when he saw them and to keep them 
against all comers. Who could get other men to serve 
him? The good fighter, who could protect his friends. 
Weaker men were willing to do his plowing, while he and 
his warriors did their fighting. They were glad to live 
in little huts near his castle. Men who could fight, 
though not so well as he, gladly helped to defend his 
castle and followed him to war. If these men had land, 
they gave it to the strong man in exchange for his pro- 
tection. In another way, also, this fighter got other 
land. When Charlemagne conquered Saxony, when 
Clovis conquered Gaul, when William won England," the 
fighters who helped them received pieces of the new land, 
and their descendants kept it for generations. 

In these ways it came about that a few warlike men 
owned most of the land and that thousands of weaker 
men owned none. Land, however, is of no use unless it 
can be worked. So it became the custom for owners 
of thousands of acres to loan small plots to other men. 
But they demanded something in return. The man who 

» See page 163. « See pages 150, 151, 194. 



CASTLE LIFE 



215 



received the land (''vassal," he was called) must help his 

lord in war and must bring a certain number 

of knights, besides. He must entertain the lord 

and his men and horses whenever the lord 

should demand it. He must come at least once 

a year to the lord's court and help to decide cases of law. 

Sometimes the vassal had to promise to do some small 



How Land 

Was 

Loaned 




A Vassal Swearing F'ealty 



service to show that he was his lord's inferior — hold his 
stirrup when he mounted his horse, carry a tall candle at 
his table once a year, present him with a Yule log at 
Christmas time. 

When a man received land from another, he knelt 
bareheaded before him, put his clasped hands between 
the hands of his lord, and made a promise like this : ''For 



2i6 THE NEWER NATIONS 

each and all of [these castles and lands] I make homage 
and fealty with hands and with mouth to thee, my lord, 
. . . and to thy successors, and I swear upon 
Duties o trhese four gospels of God [and then he placed 
his hands upon the Bible] that I will always be 
a faithful vassal to thee and to thy successors ... in all 
things in which a vassal is required to be faithful to his 
lord, and I will defend thee, my lord, and all thy 
successors . . . against all invaders." 

Then the lord kissed his vassal and raised him to his 
feet and gave him a little wisp of straw or a little twig of 
a tree as a symbol of the land that he was giving, and he 
answered, ''And I receive you and take you as my man 
and give you this kiss as a sign of faith." If the vassal 
broke his promise of faithfulness or refused to do any of 
the things that he had agreed to do, he was in danger of 
losing his land. 

One great man, dividing up his wide possessions in 
this way, often had hundreds of vassals. Some of these 
vassals had more land than they could use or defend, 
and they divided it again and loaned parts of it to 
other men, who then became their under-vassals. There 
was one piece of land in Scotland, for instance, about 
which this record was written in the year 1270 : 
''Roger of St. Germain holds [house and land] from 
Robert of Bedford . . . [and Robert holds from Richard 
Hylchester] and the said Richard holds from Alan de 
Chartres, . . . and Alan from William the Butler, and 
the same William from lord Gilbert de Neville, and the 
same Gilbert from the lady Devorguilla of Balliol, and 
Devorguilla from the king of Scotland, and the same king 
from the king of England." 

Every one of these vassals owed money or labor ' or 
military service to the lord from whom he held. Now, 



CASTLE LIFE 217 

suppose the king of England was preparing for war. He 
would send out to all his vassals a summons like this, 
''I conamand you to summon all those who are under 
your charge and jurisdiction to have armed before me by 
the week after Whitsunday ... all the knights which are 
due to me." Among others, the king of Scotland would 
receive this summons, and he would send one like it to all 
his vassals, including the lady of Balliol. Probably she, 
herself, would not go to war, but she would summon all 
her vassals to come before her with their men ready for 
war. And so the message would go down from one to 
another. At the war-call of one man, there gathered 
fighting men from all corners of broad lands. 

The Castle 

These nobles lived in castles. No two of these castles 
were just alike, yet many things were similar in all of 
them. Nowadays we choose places for our 
homes on account of their convenience or p°°<^ 

. n /r- 1 n Locations 

their beauty. In the Middle Ages a man f^^ Castles 
chose a site for his castle because of its safety, 
just as the ancient Greeks chose locations for their cities.^ 
The top of a steep hill was a good place. To be sure, a 
man could almost never find a hill so steep that other 
men could not climb it. But even on a gentle slope it is 
hard to climb and fight at once ; and there were always 
the castle men on the walls above, shooting arrows and 
rolling down stones. 

A rocky island, too, would be an excellent place for a 
castle. The foe could reach it only in boats ; and while 
they were landing and could not protect themselves 
quickly, the castle men could fall upon them. Another 
good location would be a steep headland, jutting into a 

• See page 38. 



2l8 



THE NEWER NATIONS 




A modern drawing of a castle. A, moat ; B, entrance gate ; C, outer court ; D, 

church ; E, outbuildings ; F, stable ; G, second moat ; H, entrance to inner 

court, / ; J , dwelling houses ; K, donjon or keep. 



lake or river. The owner would build a wall across the 
neck that connected the head with the mainland. This 
would be the only place where there would be much 
danger of attack, and all the fighting men could be 
crowded here to defend it. 



CASTLE LIFE 219 

But the best places were taken by the first comers, 
and after that nobles had to be content with less pro- 
tected ones. Then they had to make their 
castles safe by artificial means. One thing ^^^ 

Castle 

that every castle-builder always did was to run ^^^ii 
a strong wall around the spot where his build- 
ings were to be. In early days this was of earth, but 
later it was of stone. It was perhaps thirty feet high 
and ten feet thick. It rarely ran straight and turned 
square corners, but wandered along the edge of the hill- 
top or island in an interesting zigzag line. At every 
corner was a stout round tower, where a guard always 
stood, looking about. The top of the wall was broad and 
flat, so that warriors could stand there and fight. And 
on the outer edge of it a thin wall went a little higher 
than a man's head to protect the soldiers. But no one 
could either see an enemy or aim an arrow at him over 
so high a wall. Every few feet, therefore, it was cut 
lower, so that a man might look over, shoot, and leap 
back to safety behind the higher part. This thin wall 
was called the parapet. With its low slashes and high 
points it made the great wall seem to be on guard and to 
be carrying huge spears. 

But the enemy might get up to the foot of the wall 
and put ladders against it and climb up and 
over. Or they might bring up battering rams ^^® 
and break the wall down. So the castle-builder jyio^t 
dug a deep, broad moat at the wall's foot. 
If there was a stream near, he made a canal to it and 
turned its water into his moat. But if he could get no 
water, he left his ditch dry and planted its bottom thick 
with sharp stakes, that gave no pleasant welcome to an 
enemy. 

In time of peace, of course, men needed to get through 



220 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



The 

Castle 

Gate 



the wall and across the moat. So there was a gateway 
with a bridge leading to it. This gate and 
this bridge had to be made safe against the 
enemy, however, for who could tell when he 
might come? There was a tower at each side 
of the gateway, where the soldiers could gather. There 

were strong doors 
of heavy timber, 
that could be shut 
in the enemy's 
face. But lest he 
might sometime 
be too quick for 
the slow, heavy 
gates, there was 
a framework of 
iron bars hanging 
above the open- 
ing. This port- 
cullis the guard 
in the tower could 

A Sally across a Drawbridge drop, fierce and 

In the middle of a battle before the castle, a troop claUgiug, in an 
of soldiers sallies out across the drawbridge in good iri'^fnnf TViP 

order. Notice the portcullis in the gateway- 
bridge, moreover, 

the guards could quickly lift ; for it was a drawbridge. 

Then there were left the yawning moat and the steep 

wall to keep the castle. 

People thus shut in must be sure of food and water. 

There must be a spring or a good well inside 

^ the walls. There must, too, be granaries for 

Buildings storing grain ; and near by must be fertile fields, 

where this grain could be grown. There must 

also be room and sheds inside the wall for cattle, and 




CASTLE LIFE 221 

pasture land outside. In fact, the castle was the good 
dragon that guarded a little farming district ; and the 
farms, in payment, fed him. There had to be men to 
work the farms, and they needed houses to live in. Often 
they built them snuggled against the big, safe wall, where 
the guards could look down on the thatched roofs. In 
times of danger, these peasants left their own houses and 
crowded into the castle. So the courtyard inside the 
wall had to be large, with sheds where the peasants 
might camp for a while and where they might shelter 
their horses and cattle and plows and wagons. 

Sometimes, in a great castle, these common buildings 
and the castle's own stables and sheds and granaries 
were in the yard behind the gate ; and a second, inner 
wall went across behind them and shut off a more private 
courtyard. Here lived the lord and his family. Some- 
times there were many buildings in this second court, — 
a Uttle church, barracks for the soldiers, an armory to 
store extra weapons, a shop for the armor maker, and the 
keep, or donjon, strongly built and high. In the larger 
castles were palaces, the dwelling place of the lord and 
his family. In smaller castles, however, there were none, 
but the keep was dwelling place and fortress, all in one. 
The ground floor was the armory, perhaps. Above that 
was a large room where the soldiers ate and slept. The 
next two floors had the living rooms of the lord and his 
family and the knights who served him. 

But in any castle, great or small, the keep was the 
most important of all the buildings. It was the last 
refuge and hope of its people. Behind the walls 
it stood with its feet firmly planted. It seemed ^^ 

almost like solid rock. Indeed, its wall was often twenty 
feet thick, and there were only a few narrow sHts for 
windows. Its one door was in the second story, with a 



222 THE NEWER NATIONS 

movable ladder reaching up to it. The roof of the keep 
was flat, and a parapet went around the edge, so that 
men might make their last stand here and fight. Every- 
thing was done that could make it safe. It was a castle 
inside a castle. 

In the early days of feudalism these buildings were 

often of wood. But by the time of St. Louis all of them 

except a few of the sheds and shops were of 

The stone, with thick, rough walls. There were 

ivmg £^^ windows ; for windows were holes through 

Rooms of ' f 

the Castle which arrows or stones might come. When the 
builder did allow an opening, he made it very 
narrow, and in the thick wall it looked like a mere slit. 
Windows so few and so small made dim rooms. The sun 
rarely sweetened them. The walls inside, moreover, were 
of gray stone, unplastered, rough and cold to the touch 
and bare to look at. The floor, too, was stone. But the 
castle ladies had planned ways to add beauty and comfort 
to these bleak rooms. In winter they spread rugs on the 
stone floor, sometimes the furry skins of bear and wolf and 
fox that the lords had killed, sometimes woven carpets 
brought from the far East. In spring they often had 
the floor strewn with sweet-smelling rushes. And they 
hung the cold walls with gay tapestry of their own making. 
These castles, with their towered walls and many 
buildings, were not made in a day. Away back in the 
times of St. Louis and Frederick II some of 
^^® them were three or four hundred years old, 

of a Castle ^^^ during all that time they had slowly grown, 
as a great tree grows. Perhaps the first builder 
made only a strong keep of wood with a short wall 
surrounding it. One of his descendants, perhaps, grown 
greater and richer than his ancestor, built a new keep 
of stone and, finding the castle too small, added a bar- 



CASTLE LIFE 223 

rack for his soldiers. His grandson, with more fighting 
men, needed more room, and he made another court- 
yard in front of the old one and put a new wall about it 
and built a new, larger barrack there. If he was a lover 
of comfort and elegance, he tore down the old barrack to 
make room for a new donjon or dwelling place. Perhaps, 
too, he built a fine chapel in some corner of the wall. 




A King Giving Orders to His Builder 

These builders of the Middle Ages are using a plumb line, a square, compasses, 
a ladder, and hoists worked with a windlass. Two men in the end arches seem 
to be stonecutters 

As he looked about he could see the work of three 
generations, and perhaps he wondered whether any of his 
descendants would add anything to the family castle. 
He would never dream, I suppose, that it might become 
the heart of a city, grown up about its feet for protection. 
Visit almost any of the castles of France or Germany, 
and you will find a village or a town spreading around it 
or nestled beside it. The history of the castle and the 
town will go back perhaps a thousand years. And it 



224 THE NEWER NATIONS 

may be that even before that time the Romans had had 
a walled camp there, and perhaps yet earlier the Germans 
or the Gauls had had a fort in that very place. 

A Siege 

Did these castles of stone, built to protect their in- 
The Siege habitants, really keep them safe? Did an 
of Mon- enemy ever capture one ? For answer read 
tauban ^j^g story of a siege as told by an old French 
poet. It is an imaginary story, of course, but just such 
things often did happen in real sieges. 

''[And Charlemagne said,] 'Lords, make you ready, 
for I will now give assault to Montauban.' 

"When they were ready they came in good order and 
brought ladders and other instruments and engines to 
break down the walls, and when the King saw them so 
well appareled, he ordered the assault. 

"Renaud saw the movement aTid sounded his horn 
three times, and forthwith all they of the castle armed 
themselves and came on the walls to defend the castle. 
The Frenchmen [so the French song calls Charlemagne's 
people, though they really were German] came near and 
entered into the ditch and dressed up their ladders to the 
wall, but they within defended so strongly with casting 
of stones, that many of the Frenchmen were slain. Great 
pity it was to see the Duchess and the young children 
bearing stones for their uncles to throw. And when 
Charlemagne saw that the ladders were overthrown, he 
knew that he should not take Montauban by force, and 
made the trumpet to be blown to call his folk back. . . . 

''Charlemagne swore by St. Denis of France that he 
would not depart till they were famished, and he set before 
every gate of the castle two hundred knights, that no- 
body might pass in or out. . . . 



CASTLE LIFE 



225 



''So long abode the Emperor at the siege of Montauban 
that they who were in it had great need of victuals, and 
he that had any meat hid it straightway, for men could 
get none for gold or silver, and the dearth was so great 
that one brother hid his meat from another, and the father 
from his child, and the 
child from its mother. 
The poor folk died for 
hunger in the streets, and 
Renaud had need to make 
a great charnel house and 
carry them there. . . . 

''Then said Charle- 
magne : ' Lords, it is now 
long time since we first be- 
sieged this castle, and we 
have lost many of our folk. 
I command you to make 
great engines to bring 
down the towers ! ' . . . 

"So engines were made 
to cast great multitudes 
of stones, and for fear of 
them the folk went and 
hid under the ground ; 
and so they of Montauban 
endured this mischief also. 
So great was the dearth 
and mortality that men wist not where to put the dead 
for the charnel house was full, and the young men went 
with a staff or fell groveling on the ground for feeble- 
ness. . . . 

"There was an old man among them who said to Re- 
naud : ' Sir, I see that Montauban may no longer be 




Besieging a Tower 

The besiegers are protecting themselves 
with a movable shed (or cat) while they 
undermine the walls with pickaxes. The 
besieged are pouring boiling water on the 
roof of the cat, and trying to break it with 
stones and a sharp pole 



226 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



defended, but in you is not the fault. Come with me, 
and I shall show you a way by which we may escape 
without danger. Now know that there was once before a 
castle here, and the lord that builded it first made a way 
under the earth that bringeth folk into the Wood of the 
Serpent, and when I was a child I went 
through it. Dig here and you shall find 
it, and we may escape without danger.' 
''Then Renaud came to the place, 




Battering Ram 

Notice the difference between this armor and that in the Bayeux tapestry. 
This is about 400 years later. It is made of iron plates 

and they digged in the earth and found the way that 
the old man said, and Renaud, his wife and children, 
his brethren and the remnant of his folk, put themselves 
in the way, and Renaud made great plenty of torches 
to be fired, that they might see the better. ... So 
long they went that they came to the mouth of the 
cave and found them in the Wood of the Serpent at 
dayspring . . . [and thereafter came to Renaud's own 
town]. And when they of the city knew that their lord 
was come, they were glad and came out to meet him 



CASTLE LIFE 



227 



in fair company and made great feast through all the 
town." 1 

But besiegers were not always forced to wait for star- 
vation to conquer the castle. They could make many 
machines to help them. These were much like 
the Roman engines,- for they had the same sort S*®^.® 

IT • r -I Engines 

of work to do. In spite of the centuries that had 
passed, the castle and walled tower of the Middle Ages 
were much like the walled camp and fortified city of late 
Roman times. So the knights made battering rams much 
like the Roman ones and for the same purpose of knock- 
ing down the stone walls. They made movable towers 
and catapults for throwing stones. They dug mines as 
the Romans had done and used scaling ladders. 

But of course the castle men had ways of protecting 
themselves. Guards were always in the towers watch- 
ing and at sign of danger gave signal and „ ,^ 

nil 1 n ^ • p • • HOW tne 

called the other fightmg men; for m time of castleMen 
siege the warriors slept ready for the fray, Could Pro- 
with their swords at their sides. There were ^^^^ Them- 
secret passages leading out of the castle and 
little strong gateways in hidden places. Here a little 
body of men sometimes stole out at night and fell upon 
the sleeping camp and, after they had quickly done some 
mischief, slipped back into safety with only a few men 
lost, perhaps. 

The castle men, moreover, had engines on their wall 
and sent stones crashing into tents and rolling towers. 
They threw fire on the enemy's wooden engines and 
poured down burning pitch and lime and boiling water 
upon the men working below with the battering ram or 
the scaling ladders. 

1 To be sure, the castles of Charlemagne's time were not so elaborate, but the 
later story-teller did not know this. *See pages 101-103. 



2 28 THE NEWER NATIONS 

The Warlike Spirit of the Age 

The Middle Ages were a time of fierce war and cruelty. 
I suppose it is impossible for us in our day to imagine 
how much fighting there was. Every one thought it 
the only work fit for a gentleman. The nobles loved it 
and thirsted for fight as the old Vikings had done. It 
was, moreover, every great noble's right to go to war 
whenever he pleased, without asking the consent of his 
king or his people. 

The consequence was that war was very common. 
And where war is the chief business of life we cannot 
The expect to find men gentle and kind. There 

Cruelty was in nearly every castle a deep dungeon 
of the underground, without windows to give light 

"^^ and air, without chairs to sit on or beds to lie 

on. Here men were sometimes kept for months and 
years, merely because they were the enemies of the castle 
lord and had been captured. The punishments for crimi- 
nals were horrible. William the Conqueror prided him- 
self on his kindness, because he never sentenced a man to 
death. Yet he ordered men's tongues cut out and their 
hands cut off and their eyes blinded. 

Many a knight was vain of his "honor" as he called it. 
If a man in a crowd accidentally pushed against him, if 
a knight of less nobility walked before him through a 
doorway, he would throw his glove into the offender's 
face, and the other knight for his honor's sake would 
snatch it up angrily. In a few moments or a few hours, 
as soon as the plans could be made, these two men, on 
horseback and in full armor, with spear and sword, would 
be fighting a duel ; and one of them or both would be 
left wounded or dead on the field. 

If for a few months there was no war and no cause for 



CASTLE LIFE 



229 



a duel, the hunger for fighting grew into a madness 
among the knights, and one great lord or another would 
announce a tournament. Then there was joy in the 




A Tournament 

Seats have been built for spectators. Emperor and empress are watching. 

Horses are wearing armor. Two splintered spears on ground show that this 

is not the first charge. One assailant has now run the other through, and the 

heralds are blowing the end of the tournament 



castles around about and polishing of armor and making 
of new trappings for the horses and surcoats for the 
knights. The ladies, too, were all excitement, each one 



230 THE NEWER NATIONS 

hoping that her chosen knight would win, and giving him 
her glove or an embroidered sleeve or a bit of her girdle 

to wear in his helmet. On the great day all 
ouraa- ^j^^ ladies of the district and the greatest of 

the lords, perhaps, and the young pages would 
sit on tiers of benches that had been built at the sides 
of a level meadow. On the plain before them the 
knights on their war horses would clash together in fight. 
The battles were supposed to be mock fights, but often 
the mockery became real earnest, and perhaps a score of 
knights would be killed, for nothing but a game. A 
man's life was cheap in those days. 

Sir Thomas Malory tells of Launcelot, the mirror of 
perfect knighthood, how, at a tournament, for mere sport 
and upholding of his fame, he "thrust in with his spear 
in the thickest of the press, and there he smote down 
with one spear five knights, and of four of them he brake 
their backs. , . . Anon therewithal Sir Launcelot gat 
[another] great spear in his hand, and, or ever that great 
spear brake, he bare down to the earth sixteen knights, 
some horse and man, and some the man and not the horse, 
and there was none [he hit that bare arms again] that 
day. And then he gat another great spear, and smote 
down twelve knights, and the most part of them never 
throve after," that is, they died. And yet according to 
the same story this was 'Hhe meekest man and the 
gentlest that ever ate in hall among ladies." 

Most of these knights were nobles. That is, they and 
How a their fathers and their grandfathers had been 
Knight lords of castles and wide lands, with vassals 
,®* and servants to do them honor. All this had 

toward 

Common made them very proud, thinking themselves 
People much better than men of common blood. It 
seemed to them that the world had been made for 



CASTLE LIFE 



231 



noblemen, and the common people were but to serve 
them. The lords thought little of trampling down the 
poor men's crops in their wars or their hunts. They had 
loaned the land to these farmers, and in return they 
claimed from them so much money and so much work 
that the peasants were often 
poor and miserable — how 
poor the next chapter will 
tell. 

There was another class of 
people, also, whom the nobles 
looked down upon : namely, 
the merchants. For some 
strange reason a noble 
thought he had a right to 
take whatever he could from 
them. He made them pay 
for traveling on roads that 
went through his land, for 
crossing a bridge over one of 

his streams, for selling goods ^ Knight of the Thirteenth 
in his town near the castle. Century 

If he lived on a great river, 
he made the merchants who 
passed in boats pay toll. 

Only a man of some wealth 
could be a knight. He must have steel armor to cover 
his body, a helmet to protect his head, a long shield to 
cover him from neck to ankles, a sword to hang 
at his side, a battle-ax, and long lances. He 
must have a strong horse to carry him and his 
heavy armor. He was not content with a poor saddle. 
It must be of thick leather with carved pommel, made, 
if possible, in the south of France, where they did good 




His outer garment of cloth is called 
the surcoat. His hood, gauntlets, 
and mailed shirt are all of one piece, 
woven of iron links. Spurs are tied 
about his ankles 



A Knight's 
Equipment 



232 THE NEWER NATIONS 

work in leather. His reins must be embroidered and 
perhaps studded with jewels, and his beloved horse must 
be gay with coverings of silk and gold embroidery. 
His sword should be made in Spain of steel so sharp that 
it could cut a silk scarf thrown into the air and so tough 
that it could slash a shield of steel. Its handle he liked 
to have of gold with a few precious stones shining, and 
his spurs, also, must be of gold. He wanted his armor 
made by some famous, cunning armorer so that every 
link would hold against a sword stroke. He must have 
a surcoat or cloak of embroidered silk to throw over his 
armor when he was riding at peace. He must have at 
least one follower, or squire, to ride with him and carry his 
heavy shield and long lances in moments of peace and to 
help him put on and take off his clumsy armor. So most 
knights were men of wealth. 

Kjiightly Ideals and Training 

Knighthood meant more than fighting, however. In 
Sir Thomas Malory's old EngUsh story-book is a descrip- 
tion of Sir Launcelot, the ideal knight. One of 
^g t- j^-g jj^pQJ^jjgj. knights is mourning over Launcelot's 
dead body, saying : " Thou were the courtiest 
knight that ever bare shield ; and thou were the truest 
friend to thy lover that ever bestrode horse ; and thou 
were the truest lover of a sinful man that ever loved 
woman ; and thou were the kindest man that ever strake 
with sword ; and thou were the goodliest person ever came 
among press of knights ; and thou was the meekest man 
and the gentlest that ever ate in hall among ladies ; and 
thou were the sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever 
put spear in the rest." That was the knight's ideal — not 
only to be brave and strong, but to be well mannered and 
gentle, to be a true friend and a lover of ladies. 



CASTLE LIFE 233 

Chaucer, the first great Enghsh poet, describes a young 
squire who is preparing for knighthood. What he says 
shows that a knight was not to be a mere rough fighter. 
He describes the squire as ^ 

"A lover and lusty bachelor, 
With locks all curled, as they were laid in press. 
Of twenty years of age he was, I guess. 
Of his stature he was of even length, 
And wondrous nimble he was and great of strength. . . . 
Embroidered was he as it were a mede 
All full of freshest flowers, white and red. 
Singing he was or fluting all the day ; 
He was as fresh as is the month of May. 
Short was his gown, with sleeves both long and wide. . . . 
Well could he sit on horse and fairly ride, 
Was able songs to make and well endite, 
Joust, too, and dance, and well could draw and write. 
Courteous he was, lowly and serviceable, 
And carved before his father at the table." 

Now, a young man could not learn all of these things 
in a moment — ■ to carve at the table, to draw and write, 
to make and sing songs, to dance and to have 
pretty manners, to ride his horse and carry his J"''^*""S 
lance and swing his sword and hold his shield j^qq^j 
cleverly, and to be brave always. He had to go 
through a long course of training. It began when he 
was only a little boy. Sometimes he stayed at home for 
his education ; but usually he went to live for years at 
the castle of some other famous and wealthy knight. 

The castle family which he entered might be made up 
of two or three hundred people. The kitchen might be 

1 Chaucer's poem was written about 1386. His strange old spelling and 
some of his old-fashioned words make the verses difficult to read, so I have 
changed them a little. 



234 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



A Castle 
Family 



a great room a hundred feet long and wide, with three or 
four huge fireplaces, where whole deer and pigs and sheep 
could hang and turn over the coals. There 
were, perhaps, twenty or thirty men and boys to 
cook and clean, running about from kneading 
tables to fires with great copper kettles or big loads of 
wood for the flame. At the barracks out in the court- 
yard there might be a hundred common soldiers, prac- 
tising with the crossbow, a powerful 
weapon so stiff that a man had to pull 
it back with a crank. 

In the ladies' bower was the lord's 
wife with perhaps twenty serving 
women. Some had mantles thrown 
over their knees and were embroidering 
the edges. Others sat before tapestry 
frames and wove with bright threads. 
A few were cutting and sewing new 
robes of silk or fur. In the meadow 
outside the castle were perhaps thirty 
knights, followers of the lord, bound 
to serve him at all times and in return 
supported at his expense. They were exercising their 
horses and practising with their spears. 

The boy's education began in the ladies' bower. He 
chose one lady and served her lovingly for several years 
as her page. He helped her in every way that 
he could — ran upon her errands, carried her 
messages, held her horse, carried her falcon, wound her 
yarn, held her embroidery basket. And from her he 
learned many things. She told him stories of the saints 
and of great knights. She taught him to bow gracefully 
and to dance. Perhaps she could read, and spent an hour 
a day with him over some huge book with big letters and 




Crossbowman 

The crossbow was the 

most deadly weapon 

invented before the use 

of gunpowder 



CASTLE LIFE 235 

bright pictures. Surely she could sing and play the harp 
and helped him to learn that art. She saw to it that the 
castle minstrel spent an hour now and then with her 
page and taught him some of his great knowledge. 
She made sure that the boy went frequently to church 
and to confession, and she talked with the castle priest 
and asked his help and advice in training her little page 
to be an honorable, Christian knight. So the ladies and 
the priest tried to teach the boy knowledge and gentle 
manners before they let him learn from the knights the 
fierce practices of war. 

When the page was large enough and strong enough 
(perhaps when he was twelve or thirteen years old), he 
became the squire of some knight, as he had before been 
the page of a lady. The squires led busy lives. Every 
morning they went to the stables and helped 
to care for the war-horses and hunting horses. 
And well tended those horses were. Cloth of silk was not 
too fine to rub down their shining coats, for they were 
the best beloved of their masters' hearts. The horse 
and the knight had lived together for many a year in 
peace and war. They had often been wounded together. 
Together they had lain down at night on a hard-fought 
field. Together they may have fled in fear and shame 
from a lost battle. So it was a young squire's great duty 
and great pleasure to learn to care for a noble war-horse, 
looking forward to the time when he should have a shin- 
ing sorrel of his own, with thick, arching neck and high- 
lifted hoofs and nervous nostrils and intelligent eyes. 

The squire served his master in many ways. He made 
his bed, he stood behind him at table, carved his meat, 
carried his plate, and filled his cup. . He helped him to 
dress and undress. He polished his helmet and sword and 
shield until they were like mirrors. He mended the leather 



236 THE NEWER NATIONS 

dress that was worn under the long hnk armor, and he 
kept it oiled and soft. He carefully inspected the armor, 
and if a link was broken or if a sword or lance had slashed 
it in battle, he took the coat of mail to the armorer's 
shop in the castle court and had it mended. But, best 
of all, he followed his lord to war, carried his extra lances 
in battle, rescued him and took him off the field, if he was 
wounded. 

Thus he learned the things that he needed to know. 
And, besides, his knight taught him how to mount a 
horse in one spring, without touching the stirrup ; how 
to receive a stroke with his shield and so guard himself ; 
how to hold his heavy lance firm ; how to swing the long 
sword. He tried to train him, too, in courage and faith- 
fulness and courtesy. 

Some day, when the boy was full grown and had done 
a brave deed, or by strength and gentleness had shown 
himself worthy of knighthood, his lord would 
Kni htin knight him. That was the greatest day of his 
life. Perhaps the knighting would be done in 
a moment, on the field, after a battle where the squire 
had done some brave thing. Perhaps it would be done 
in the castle yard in time of peace. In that case the 
squire would bathe and put on fresh, new garments, as 
he was to begin a new, clean life. All night he would 
spend in the chapel before the altar, where lay his sword 
and lance and shield ; for every knight must be a lover 
of Christ and a defender of the church, and his weapons 
must be consecrated to God's cause. 

But whether the knighting was done in haste on the 
battle-field or with all gorgeousness at home, among ad- 
miring friends, the great moment was when the young 
squire knelt before his lord, waiting to be made a knight. 
Malory tells how King Arthur knighted Tor. "Then Tor 




tn 



237] 



238 



THE NEWER NATIONS 




The Knighting 



A squire has done brave service in a battle, and a friendly knight is giving him 

knighthood 

alight off his mare and pulled out his sword, kneeling and 
requiring the king that he would make him knight and 
that he might be a knight of the Table Round. 'As for 
a knight, I will make you, ' [said King Arthur] ; and 
therewith smote him in the neck with the sword, saying, 
' Be ye a good knight, and so I pray to God so ye may be, 
and if ye be of prowess and of worthiness, ye shall be a 
knight of the Table Round.'" 

After that stroke on the back of the neck to test his 
courage, the young man rose, a knight. And his lord 
gave him a sword and belted it on with his own hands 
and buckled golden spurs on the new knight's heels and 



CASTLE LIFE 239 

gave him a shield. Often he told him what were the 
duties of a knight and encouraged him to be worthy of 
his new name. 

Lord Tennyson, one of the great English poets of our 
own time, has King Arthur tell what he made his knights 
of the Round Table promise before he would accept them : 

" I made them lay their hands in mine and swear 
To reverence the King as if he were 
Their conscience, and their conscience as their King, 
To break the heathen and uphold the Christ, 
To ride abroad redressing human wrongs, 
To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it, 
To honor his own word as if his God's, 
To lead sweet lives in purest chastity, 
To love one maiden only, cleave to her. 
And worship her by years of noble deeds." 

Knightly Pleasures 

The chief joy of these knights was in battle, yet there 
were gentler sports. About every castle was good hunt- 
ing ; for farms were fewer then than now, and . 
there were more forests and open fields. Deer 
and wild boar and bear were common in them. All these 
were good eating, and the castle families were fond of 
wild meats and fonder yet of the excitement of the hunt. 
Every castle had kennels with dozens of dogs, and in the 
stables hunting horses, smaller and quicker than the 
knights' heavy war-horses. 

Men went hunting, not in armor, as they went to 
battle, but in gay cloth suits, with fur capes flung over 
their shoulders, perhaps, and heavy gloves to protect 
their hands. Instead of swords they carried bows and 
quivers of arrows or stout hunting spears and always a 
broad, sharp knife in the belt ; for a boar was a savage 



240 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



beast, and sometimes the hunter had to protect himself 
at short range. 

Twenty knights, perhaps, would start out from the 
castle on their prancing horses, with laughter and shouting 
and blowing of horns. Among them walked the keepers 
of the hounds, holding back the excited dogs, that were 
leaping and straining at the end of their leashes. All 
day the party scoured the woods. The hounds tracked 
the game, and the hunters followed, coming in with their 
spears and knives to kill the animal when it was cornered. 
Hunting was a savage game, less brutal than war, but 
a good training for warlike quickness and courage. No 
man was thought a good knight unless he was also a good 
hunter, and great and wise kings and bishops were proud 
of skill and courage in the chase. William the Con- 
queror owned great "deer parks" or stretches of wild 
forest, where no one was allowed to hunt except at his 

invitation,^ and the old Anglo- 
Saxon Chronicle says, "he 
loved the tall deer, as he were 
their father." King Alfred 
trained his own hounds, 
Charlemagne was famous with 
the hunting spear, and Fred- 
erick II was proud of his hunt- 
ing leopards. 

Hawking was a gentler, 

prettier sport. The ladies, as 

well as the knights. 

Hawking 

were lovers oi this. 
A hawking party went to 
hunt only rabbits and hares and such wild birds as are 
good to eat, — ducks, geese, partridges, quails, and the 

1 See page 195. 




A Gentleman Hawking 
The bird is held by leather thongs 



CASTLE LIFE 241 

like. On the wrist of every hunter perched a hawk or 
falcon, carefully trained and tended at the falcon house 
in the castle yard. As the gay party rode along, chatting 
and laughing, the falcon's head was hooded, so that he 
could not see to fly away. He was, moreover, held by a 
little silver chain or leather leash attached to his leg. As 
the party entered the wood, they grew more quiet, lest 
they might frighten the game, and they scattered through 
the forest in twos or threes. 

If a hunter caught sight of a flying duck, he took off 
the hood from his hawk's head and loosed the leash from 
its leg. In a moment the falcon's sharp eyes saw the 
game. A spring, and he was in the air, flying with his 
strong wings toward the bird. Once or twice he circled 
above it, then fell upon it with his savage talons and 
beak and killed it. The hunter, eagerly watching, at this 
moment blew, on a little silver whistle, a note that his 
hawk knew. The falcon, hearing the call, dropped the 
bird and, flying to his master, settled upon his wrist to 
be petted and fed some tidbit. 

Meantime a servant let go a dog, which sought out the 
dead game and brought it back. At the end of the day 
dozens of birds would be hanging at saddlebows. The 
party would return to feast in the castle hall, to sit about 
the fire and tell tales of their clever falcons, to hear the 
minstrel sing of the joys of hawking in the greenwood. 

Folk in castle days were great lovers of poetry. There 
were few books to read, and few people could „. 

. Minstrels 

read them. Instead, there was the minstrel, tor 

the common folk. He wandered about from town to 

town, afoot, with a stick and a bundle over 

his shoulder and a viol slung at his back. At „ "^^ ^ 

Song 

some busy street corner, where many people 

passed, he would unsling his viol and begin thrunoming the 



242 THE NEWER NATIONS 

strings. At the merry sound doors would open ; feet would 
begin running; glad shouts would be raised; and men, 
women, and children would crowd about. Then the min- 
strel, while he played on his viol, would begin singing, 
perhaps a song like this good old ballad of Scotland : 

Ye Highlands, and ye Lowlands, 

Oh, where have you been ? 
They have slain the Earl of Murray, 

And they laid him on the green. 

" Now wae be to thee, Huntly ! 

And wherefore did ye sae ? 
I bade you bring him wi' you, 

But forbade you him to slay." 

He was a braw gallant, 

And he rid at the ring ; ^ 
And the bonny Earl of Murray, 

Oh, he might have been a king ! 

He was a braw gallant, 

And he played at the ba' ; 
And the bonny Earl of Murray 

Was the flower amang them a'. 

He was a braw gallant, 

And he played at the glove ; 
And the bonny Earl of Murray, 

Oh, he was the queen's love. 

Oh, lang will his lady 

Look o'er the Castle Downe, 
E'er she see the Earl of Murray 

Come sounding through the town ! 

1 A game in which the knight, riding at a gallop, tried with his spear to pick 
off rings hung on a standard. 



CASTLE LIFE 



243 



Almost every castle had a poet of its own. There he 
lived and did his work — the making and singing of 
pretty songs. At weddings and on birthdays 
and gay holidays he must make special new p ^ *^ ® 
lays and stand up when the company was 
gathered at dinner and sing for their delight. On the 
evenings of common days, too, the big family gathered 
in the great hall to talk and tell stories, and at last the 
minstrel must sing. Perhaps the lord would give him a 
subject — love or a battle or yesterday's hunt — and 
would demand a new song made up on the moment. 




The King Dines 
The minstrel often played as the servants brought in the food 

There are very few people who can do that thing, but 
some of these old poets were clever at it. 

Some of the castle poets had great genius, and they 
found one lord's castle too small. Most of them loved 
adventure and found settled life too tame. 
Then they took to the road. If they were ^^^°^^_ 
poor, they went afoot, as the minstrels did. If ^ours 
one was richer, he rode on a horse, with a mule 
to carry his harp and viol and his precious book or two 
and his extra clothing. Perhaps there was a boy to lead 
the mule and to wait upon the master. 



244 THE NEWER NATIONS 

Such a singer in southern France was called a trouba- 
dour, and there were scores of them in that rich, song- 
loving land. The names of four hundred are still re- 
membered and many of their songs preserved in books. 
A famous troubadour went only to the great castles, where 
he would find men and women of education who would 
appreciate his poetry and who could pay him well; for 
poets must live. When he approached the castle, there 
would be a great stir. The guard would quickly let down 
the drawbridge and pull up the portcullis and would 
send a message to his lord and lady, ''A troubadour has 
come!" 

When the family gathered at dinner that night, there 
would be more bright looks and more gay laughter than 

usual. Perhaps, if it was spring, and the air 

was sweet, the lord would order the midday 
meal in the garden outside the moat on the river bank. 
That was a busy scene, with dozens of serving boys run- 
ning about under the high trees, carrying trestles and 
boards for the tables, great platters of steaming meats, 
drinking cups of silver and even a few of gold for the 
ladies. Perhaps two servants together would proudly 
carry a silver plate with the greatest delicacy of all — a 
roast peacock, its beautiful feathers all carefully saved 
and so arranged over the roasted body that the bird 
seemed ahve and spreading its proud tail. 

But the ladies and gentlemen of that company were 
more gay than any peacock. The women were in long 

robes of shining silk that trailed rustling over 
Company ^^® grass. And not a lady was content with 

one color in her dress. Perhaps a long robe 
of deep blue fell from her neck to her toes, and it was 
all embroidered over with little apples of gold. The wide 
cuffs under her hands dropped so low that they brushed 



CASTLE LIFE 



245 



the grass, and they were lined with green, hke the Ughts 
in the peacock's tail. There hung from her shoulders a 
mantle of dark wine color, and around all its edge was a 
wide embroidery of golden flowers and leaves of green 
like the long cuffs. She and her ladies had kept their 
needles busy on it for half a year. And about her body 
was wound a wonderful girdle, all braided and 
twisted and embroidered like a Persian rug. 

The gentlemen were quite as gay, with em- 
broidered capes and crimson shoes and pointed 
hoods of bright silk and rich fur at neck and 
wrists, and every one with a jeweled dagger 
thrust into his belt, a golden chain about his 
neck, and shining rings on his fingers. 

When dinner was ended, perhaps the lord 
himself took the harp and sang a song of his 
own making and afterwards sent the 
harp to another and asked for a lay. ^^^ songs 
But soon he called for the visiting 
troubadour, and there was glad clapping of 
hands from the company. Perhaps the poet 
would sing of his lady ; for every troubadour 
was a lover. Sometimes he was a knight and a lover 
of war as well as of ladies. This song was made by 
such a man — lord of a castle, a fierce fighter, a friend 
of kings : 

I love the spring tide of the year 
When leaves and blossoms do abound. 
And well it pleases me to hear 
The birds that make the woods resound 
With their exulting voices. 
And very well it pleases me 
Tents and pavilions pitched to see. 
And oh, my heart rejoices 



A Lady 



246 



THE NEWER NATIONS 




A Royal Harper 

The artist has kindly given crowns to everybody except the servant. The 

harper is playing while the meal goes on. Doubtless all the few dishes are of 

gold or silver. Dogs were commonly allowed in the dining hall 

To see armed knights in panoply 
Of war on meadow and on lea. 
Not so much joy in sleep have I, 
Eating and drinking please me less 
Than hearing on all sides the cry 
' At them ! ' and horses riderless 
Among the woodlands neighing. 
And well I like to hear the call 
Of ' Help ! ' and see the wounded fall, 
Loudly for mercy praying ; 
And see the dead both great and small, 
Pierced by sharp spearheads, one and all. 

To us this seems a brutal song, but the castle com- 
pany that listened hundreds of years ago liked it very 
much, I am sure. Every knight remembered 
his own battles and felt his heart leap with the 
doursWere savage joy of fight, and he shouted applause. 
^^^ Even the ladies clapped their hands ; for they, 

too, thought that war was noble. Surely the lord of the 



How 
Trouba 



CASTLE LIFE 247 

castle was pleased with the song and invited the trouba- 
dour to be his guest as long as he would — for months 
or for years. But the poet was doubtless a rover, like 
all his fellows, and after a summer or two sought another 
castle and new companions. 

The Tune of Chivalry 

Nobody can tell when chivalry or knighthood began. 
Doubtless the people of the very time when it was start- 
ing did not know what was happening, for things begin 
quietly and change as they grow. But we know that 
there were knights in the year 1096. Yet we cannot 
tell how long before that knighthood may have existed. 

It is as hard to tell when knighthood ended as when 
it began. Indeed, kings of England even to-day dub 
men knights, but a modern knight is a very different 
kind of person from a knight of the Middle Ages. 
Those men of earlier times, who dressed in steel armor, 
carried lances and swords, loved to fight, lived in stone 
castles, listened to troubadours — when did they disap- 
pear? They did not drop out of the world all at once. 
Slowly all things changed — costumes, laws, ways of 
thinking. 

The change which had most to do with the dis- 
appearance of the old-time knights was in the kind of 
fighting. About 1340 the people of western Europe 
began to use gunpowder, which they had learned of in 
their Eastern travels. Now, gunpowder will send a ball 
through a man's armor, and a cannon ball will tear through 
a castle wall. So, gradually, as men invented stronger 
guns, they put off their useless, clumsy armor and 
abandoned their useless, gloomy castles. 

Yet all-over western Europe we have many of these 
castles left — some in ruins and some that have been 



248 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



kept in repair. The king of England still lives in castles 
that were built hundreds of years ago, though they have 
been enlarged, and modern comforts have been added. 
In museums we have, too, some of the very armor that 
those olden knights wore. Stored in books we still have 
many old troubadour songs and many a knightly story. 

But the best thing that the people of the Middle Ages 
have left us is the knightly ideal of what a man ought 

to be. Few knights 
lived up to it, of 
course; and in the 
hundreds of years 
since then we have 
learned that war is 
hideous and not 
glorious, that work 
is noble and not 
shameful, and that 
all men have equal 
rights. These are 
the things that the 
knights did not 
know. And yet 
when we now want 
to say that a man is most honorable in the keeping of 
promises, true to his friend and courteous to his enemy; 
that a lie never stains his lips ; that his manner is gentle 
and beautiful, — we call him ''knightly." 



((({ 




-A 


^k 


If^^^^^f^-^St^ 


J 


^ ^s^ 


ffl 


^ "^^^/^ 


^ 


% 


^ 'M l\l|^\lf>V'*«'^ 


^^ 



A Knight 

In this knight's time fashions are beginning to 

change from the old link armor to plate armor. 

The saddle is planned to brace the knight against 

a thrust 



1. Make a play in which a vassal swears fealty to his lord. 
2. Model a castle in clay, each one in the class making one building 
or a part of the wall. 3. In sand model a country with hills, valleys, 
and rivers, then choose a place for a castle. 4. Did feudalism last 
longer in France or Germany? Can you tell why? 



CHAPTER XI 

THE WORKERS 

The knights were few, and the common people whom 
they scorned were many. Doubtless most of those who 
read this book are descended, not from some knight of 
the Middle Ages, but from some farmer or trader or 
craftsman. These common people were oppressed, and 
they began the long, hard fight for freedom and comfort 
that we are still fighting. Facts like these ought to make 
the common men more interesting to us than the fine 
castle folk. 

Farmers 

Common people in the Middle Ages did not own land, 
as our farmers do ; they only borrowed it from the great 
people — knights, lords, bishops.^ One of those ,^ „ 

^ ^ . , , , The Manor 

gentlemen might own several thousand acres 
of land, scattered in pieces through the country. Each 
piece was called a manor, and it had upon it a castle or a 
strong house. Perhaps the lord himself lived here, or 
perhaps only an agent, who took care of the manor for 
him. But however that was, neither the lord nor the agent 
really worked the land. There was too much of it for 
one man to till, so it was divided up in a strange way. 

Some of it the lord kept for himself and called it his 
domain, or demesne. On this he had grain fields; an 
orchard of apple and pear trees, perhaps ; and a garden 
where grew onions, mustard, cabbage, peas, and beans. 

1 See pages 214-216. 
249 



250 THE NEWER NATIONS 

Another part of the land was divided into three fields, 
each as large as one of our farms, with perhaps two or 
three hundred acres in it. On one great field was planted 
wheat, the best crop ; on another, oats ; and the third 
field was left unplanted and was used as a pasture for 
cattle or sheep. The next spring wheat was planted on 
last year's oat field, oats on the old pasture, and last 
season's wheat field was left unplanted. People rotated 
the crops in this way because the land wore out if they 
planted wheat on it year after year. 

These were the fields that were loaned out to the com- 
mon people. Perhaps a hundred families shared this 
land. It was cut up into long, narrow strips, with lines 
of wild grass between instead of fences. Each man had 
a strip here and a strip there, perhaps as much as thirty 
acres, scattered about through the three fields. 

Of course, he might not work these just as he pleased 

— plant what he liked and harvest when he would. He 

had to do what all his fellows did. He had to 

Work ^®* ^^^ strips in the fallow field lie fallow when 

his neighbors planned. On his strips in the oat 

field, too, he had to plant oats ; and in the wheat field. 




The Ox-plow 



wheat; as other men wished. Moreover, he had to 
plow when his fellows plowed, plant when his fellows 
planted, and harvest when his fellows harvested. For it 
needed four oxen to pull a plow, and in clay soil eight; 




Plan of a Manor' 

Showing the three fields divided into strips. The black strips are those 
belonging to one villain 

[251] 



252 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



and no poor man could own as many as that, with plows 
and carts besides. So one man furnished a plow, three 
or four others an ox apiece, another perhaps two oxen. 
One day one man held the plow, and another drove the 
oxen, while their fellows dug the drain ditches. 




piiiiiiiiii{ 

luuufluiS ^^ 

Cutting Grain 

Women are doing the work with hand sickles. 

When harvest time came, they all went together to 
the great field, each to his own strip. The wives and 
children, too, were there, every one with a little sickle in 
his hand. So the big patchwork field was dotted over 
with moving figures, bending and swaying, and with 
crisscross rows of standing grain and fallen grain. At 
rest time several families came together, I suppose, in 




Stacking the Sheaves 

friendly fashion and ate their bread and cheese and 
shared their cider and ale from the leather jugs. And the 
children, doubtless, ran to the wild patches between the 
planted strips and played hide-and-seek among the shrubs, 
and picked daisies and made chains. 



THE WORKERS 253 

When the grain was all cut, the workers raked it up 
with hand rakes and bound it into sheaves. Then one 
lent his cart with its heavy wooden wheels, another lent 
his two oxen to draw it, the harvesters piled it high with 
bundles and hauled it to the big barn. There they 
spread the wheat thinly over the floor and with wooden 
flails beat out the grain from the heads. Then they raked 
it into piles and with fans blew away the chaff and straw. 
After that every man came with the woolen sacks his 
wife had woven, and claimed his share of the grain, ac- 
cording to the amount of land he held. 

Some one has called these manors "little islands of 
cultivation in a great waste," for western Europe was 
thinly peopled in those days. All about the 
manor lay a sea of untilled land. Perhaps it ^soktion 
was wild forest where the lord might hunt, where Manor 
the peasants' pigs might feed, where the tenants 
might get wood for their fires and lumber for their build- 
ing. Or perhaps it was rocky hillsides or rolling moor- 
land where sheep might feed. Perhaps it was marsh- 
land where wild hay might be cut or peat taken out for 
fuel. Whatever it was, it cut off the manor from the rest 
of the world. For there were few roads made through it, 
and many robbers lurking in it. Few men, even if their 
lords had encouraged them to travel, would have chosen 
to set off on foot through this dangerous wilderness. 
Besides, they would not have known how far it was to 
the nearest manor or in what direction it lay. 

Few peasants, therefore, ever trod any soil but that 
of their own manor, ever saw any methods of work except 
those of their own fellows. Very seldom, indeed, did 
they even see anybody that they had not known all their 
lives. If ever a visiting lord or king's agent, with his 
dozen armed followers, or trader with his pack-horse, did 



254 THE NEWER NATIONS 

ride out of the great forest, it was an exciting day for all 
the people on the manor, and for months they talked of the 
visitors' strange ways and strange dress and strange speech. 
So the people in one ''little island of cultivation" were 
knit very close together. They had to do almost every- 
thing for themselves. They made their own farm tools. 
They grew their own wheat, and their own lord's miller 
ground it into flour. They killed their own pigs and 
smoked their own bacon and hams. They sheared their 




Hauling the Cart-load Uphill 
The horses are hitched tandem 

own sheep, spun the wool, wove the yarn, and made their 
own clothes. Their own lord or his agent held court 
three times a year in the manor house and heard all com- 
plaints and punished all crimes. They went to the church 
in the heart of the manor, and in the graveyard beside it 
buried their dead. 

For these farmers were not free men. They belonged 
to the lord who owned the land. They were 
Seiric^ not exactly his slaves, for he might not kill them 
or sell them away from the land, but in all mat- 
ters they had to obey him. Moreover, they had to work for 



THE WORKERS 



255 



him in return for the use of his land and for the protec- 
tion which he gave them.^ In the spring they had to go 
to his field and do his plowing before they did their 
own. At harvest time they cut his wheat and threshed 
it. Sometimes they furnished the plows and oxen and 
carts and sickles ; sometimes the lord had his own tools. 
Each man did much or little, according to the amount of 
land he used. In fact, just as a great lord loaned out his 
land to knights and called them to help do his fighting, 
so a lesser lord loaned his land to common men and called 




Harrowing 

The medieval artist did not know how to represent the harrow lying flat. A 
man is slinging stones at the birds 

them to do his farm work of all kinds. Besides that, just 
as the knights had to give money to their lords at certain 
times, so these common people had to give presents to 
their lords. 

For instance, a certain man used about thirty acres of 
land and in payment had to do the following things for 
his lord : eighty-two days' work between Michaelmas 
[September 29th] and June 24th ; eleven and a half days' 
work between June 24th and August 1st ; nineteen days' 
work between August 1st and Michaelmas; six extra 
days' work with one extra man ; one extra day's work 
with two men for reaping, with food from the lord ; half 
a carriage [this means, I suppose, that he and another 

1 See pages 163 and 215-216. 



256 THE NEWER NATIONS 

peasant together furnished a wagon with oxen to haul it] 
for carrying the wheat ; half a carriage for the hay ; the 
plowing and harrowing of an acre ; one day's harrow- 
ing of oat land ; one horse load of wood ; making one- 
quarter ^ of malt and drying it ; one day's work at wash- 
ing and shearing sheep ; one day's hoeing ; one day's 
nutting ; three days' mowing ; one day's work in carry- 
ing to the stack ; help once a year at the lord's will. 

A certain other man used only a tiny spot of ground in 
front of his house, and owed only ''one day's work on 
Monday in every week unless a festival prevents him, 
one hen at Christmas, and five eggs at Easter." Some 
men were especially good carpenters or blacksmiths and 
paid for their land by repairing the wooden carts, harrows, 
and plow frames, by making horseshoes, or by keeping 
the plowshares and scythes and hoes in order. 

Besides all these regular dues, the lords made many 
special demands. If a man's daughter married, he had 
to make a present to the lord. If his son wished to go to 
school, he had to buy the lord's permission. If a pig was 
killed, the lord had to have his share. A man might not 
grind his own wheat in his own little hand mill, but had to 
take it to the lord's mill and pay toll for the work. Indeed 
a villain, or peasant, could hardly turn over his hand 
without having to pay. 

As a result of all these dues the peasants were very 
poor, and their lives were hard and unlovely. Their 
houses were mean little things of wood, with 
^^^^^®^ only one room and a dirt floor. At night the 
Peasants family climbed a ladder to a loft under the 
thatched roof and slept in their day clothes on 
piles of straw. In the room below was very little furni- 
ture — a table on sawhorses, a chest or two, a few stools, 

» Eight bushels. 



THE WORKERS 257 

a brass pot, some wooden bowls, a loom for weaving. 
A little fire burned on the floor, with no chimney but 
only a hole in the roof to carry off the smoke. Even in 
the long winter nights the family went to bed at dark, 
for candles were costly. 

Their food would seem poor to us. There were no 
sweet cakes or puddings, little fresh fruit, and few green 
vegetables. Fish and peas, or pork and cabbage, were 
thrown into a pot and boiled and set on the table in one 
dish. Every one used his fingers or a piece of bread to 
handle his food. 

In 1362 there was a common people's poet in England, 
— William Langland, himself a poor man. This is the 
picture he gives of 

"the poor in the cottage. 
Charged with a crew of children and with a landlord's rent. 
What they win by their spinning to make their porridge with, 
Milk and meal, to satisfy the babes — 
The babes that continually cry for food — 
This they must spend on the rent of their houses. 
Ay, and themselves suffer with hunger, 
With woe in winter rising a-nights, 
In the narrow room to rock the cradle. 
Carding, combing, clouting, washing, rubbing, winding, and 

peeling of rushes. 
Pitiful is it to read the cottage women's woe, 
Ay, and many another that puts a good face on it, 
Ashamed to beg, ashamed to let neighbors know 
All that they need, noontide and evening. 
Many the children and nought but a man's hands 
To clothe and feed them ; and few pennies come in, 
And many mouths to eat the pennies up." 

In some countries the lord had the right to punish his 
villains almost as he would, — to fine them, to brand 



258 THE NEWER NATIONS 

them with red-hot iron, to cut off their hands, to take 
their land from them and turn them out of their homes. 
And some landlords there were who served their people 
in this way. 

But if the lord was just and kind, his villains might 
prosper. They might buy their sons' freedom, send 
The them to school, and make priests of them, 

struggle They might pay money to the lord for rent, 
for Free- instead of taking two days out of the week to 

°™ do his work while their own fields lay neg- 

lected, (jhey might even buy his permission to leave 
their land, to go to a town or to another manor and work 
there for wages as free men\ No lord could claim work 
or gifts from these men or could punish them in his court. 
Freedom of this sort was the highest ambition of every 
villain. But it was a difficult thing to gain. Life was 
so hard that few men could save enough to buy free- 
dom. Sometimes they tried to gain it by running away 
through the forest to some other place. If such a man 
was not caught within a year and a day the law declared 
that he should be a free man and that his lord had no 
right to him. But generally he was found before the year 
was out. Then he was taken back to his old manor, was 
whipped and branded, and was worse off than before. 

Once the common people of England banded together 

against their lords and tried to gain freedom by force of 

arms. Froissart tells the story of this " Great 

^^® Revolt." He was a lover of nobles and a 

Revolt " scorner of the common people, yet even as he 
tells the tale we can see that this was a brave, 
desperate attempt to get the people's just rights. It is 
as inspiring a story as that of the gaining of the Great 
Charter, but a sadder one, because in spite of its justice 
and in spite of men's earnestness, it failed. 



THE WORKERS 



259 



Froissart says: ''It is customary in England, as well 
as in several other countries, for the nobility to have 
great privileges over the common people ; that is to say, 
the lower orders are bound by law to plow the lands of 
the gentry, to harvest their grain, to carry it home to the 
bam, to thrash and winnow it. They are also bound to 
harvest and carry home the hay. All these services the 
prelates and gentlemen exact of their inferiors ; and in 
the counties of Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Bedford, these 
services are more oppressive than in other parts of the 
kingdom. In con- 
sequence of this 
the evil-disposed 
in these districts 
began to murmur, 
saying, that in the 
beginning of the 
world there were 
no slaves, and that 
no one ought to be 
treated as such, 
unless he had committed treason against his lord, as 
Lucifer had done against God ; but they had done no 
such thing, for they were neither angels nor spirits, but 
men formed after the same likeness as these lords who 
treated them as beasts. This they would bear no longer ; 
they were determined to be free, and if they labored or 
did any work, they would be paid for it. 

''A crazy priest in the county of Kent, called John 
Ball, who for his absurd preaching had thrice been con- 
fined in prison by the archbishop of Canterbury, was 
greatly instrumental in exciting these rebellious ideas. 
Every Sunday after mass, as the people were coming out 
of church, this John Ball was accustomed to assemble a 




Threshing with Flails 



26o THE NEWER NATIONS 

crowd around him in the market-place and preach to 
them. On such occasions he would say, ' My good friends, 
matters cannot go on well in England until all things 
shall be in common ; when there shall be neither vassals 
nor lords ; when the lords shall be no more masters than 
ourselves. How ill they behave to us ! For what reason 
do they thus hold us in bondage? Are we not all de- 
scended from the same parents, Adam and Eve? And 
what can they show, or what reason can they give, why 
they should be more masters than ourselves? They are 
clothed in velvet and rich stuffs, ornamented with ermine 
and other furs, while we are forced to wear poor clothing. 
They have wines, spices, and fine bread, while we have 
only rye and the refuse of straw ; and when we drink, it 
must be water. They have handsome seats and manors, 
while we must brave the wind and rain in our labors in 
the field ; and it is by our labor they have wherewith to 
support their pomp. We are called slaves, and if we do 
not perform our service we are beaten, and we have no 
sovereign to whom we can complain or who would be 
willing to hear us. Let us go to the king [Richard II, 
great-great-great-grandson of King John] and remonstrate 
with him; he is young, and from him we may obtain a 
favorable answer, and if not we must ourselves seek to 
amend our condition.' 

''With such language as this did John Ball harangue 
the people of his village every Sunday after mass. The 
archbishop, on being informed of it, had him arrested 
and imprisoned for two or three months by way of pun- 
ishment ; but the moment he was out of prison, he re- 
turned to his former course. Many in the city of London, 
envious of the rich and noble, having heard of John Ball's 
preaching, said among themselves that the country was 
badly governed, and that the nobility had seized upon 



THE WORKERS 



261 



all the gold and silver. These wicked Londoners, there- 
fore, began to assemble in parties, and to show signs of 
rebellion ; they also invited all those who held like opin- 
ions in the adjoining counties to come to London ; telling 
them that they would find the town open to them and the 
commonalty of the same way of thinking as themselves, 
and that they would so press 
the king, that there should no 
longer be a slave in England. 

''By this means the men 
of Kent, Essex, Sussex, Bed- 
ford, and the adjoining coun- 
ties, in number about 60,000, 
were brought to London under 
command of Wat Tyler, Jack 
Straw, and John Ball." 

That is a wonderful pic- 
ture, 60,000 poor men in their 
ragged clothes tramping the 
roads to London, shouting noble sayings of John Ball : 
"All men were created equal" ; or, "When Adam delved 
and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?" Some of 
these men were farmers, and carried hoe or scythe or 
plowfoot in their hands. Others were blacksmiths with 
their hammers, or woodcutters with their axes. A few 
knights, whose hearts were touched by the people's wrongs, 
went with them on horseback. These crowds set out for 
London, with their dream of freedom ahead of them. 
But because they were ignorant, and because their poverty 
had made them bitter against wealth, they did some wild 
things on the way. They opened prisons, tore down the 
houses of rich men whom they hated, and even killed 
some who were their enemies. When they came to Lon- 
don, the young King Richard would not go out to meet 




John Ball 



262 THE NEWER NATIONS 

them at first. So they went through the city streets, 
burning the houses of lawyers and tax collectors, and 
king's officers who they thought had wronged them. 
Moreover, they killed many men of that sort, and cut 
off their heads and put them on poles which they set up 
on London Bridge. 

But at last the king rode out to meet them in a meadow 
where they were camped, ''saying in a most pleasing 
manner, 'My good people, I am your king and your lord. 
What is it you want ? What do you wish to say to me ? ' 
Those who heard him made answer, 'We wish you to 
make us free forever. We wish to be no longer called 
slaves, nor held in bondage.' " 

At first the king thought to grant their wish but at 
last he turned against them, "and a proclamation was 
made through all the streets, that every person who was 
not an inhabitant of London and who had not resided 
there a full year should instantly depart, for if any 
[others] were found in the city on Sunday morning at 
sunrise, they would be arrested as traitors to the king 
and have their heads cut off. . . . 

"This proclamation no one dared infringe, but all in- 
stantly departed to their houses quite discomfited. John 
Ball and Jack Straw were found hidden in an old ruin 
where they had gone, thinking to steal away when 
things were quiet ; but this they were prevented doing, 
for their own men betrayed them. With this capture the 
king and his barons were much pleased, and had their 
heads cut off, as was that of Tyler, and fixed on London 
Bridge." After that the king resolved to visit the country 
in order to punish the principal rebels throughout Eng- 
land, so upwards of sixteen hundred were beheaded or 
hanged. The Great Revolt had come to nothing. 

Yet we can see that the peasants had progressed since 



THE WORKERS 263 

the early days of the manor. Men who can hold secret 
meetings, organize an army, and plan a war, are not the 
ignorant, downtrodden, ununited villains of early times, 
never setting foot outside of their own manors. Many 
men, by purchase or escape, had gained freedom, and 
peasants were beginning to think. This great attempt 
failed, and so did others like it in France and Germany. 
But everywhere the slower, quieter ways of gaining freedom 
went on. Free men working for wages began more and 
more to take the place of land-bound villains, and the 
towns grew populous with free workmen. 

Townsmen 

We have seen ^ how villages grew up near the castles, 
and how large villages or towns grew up in places favorable 
to trade. Almost all the people who lived 
in these towns were tradesmen or apprentices Merchant 
who hoped to become tradesmen. Living 
elbow to elbow inside the city wall, all earning their 
bread by selling goods, these men felt closely knit together. 
'' Let us join into a society to help one another," they said. 
"We can thus protect ourselves from dishonest trades- 
men in our own town and from foreign traders who come 
to our gate." So they organized what they called a 
"gild merchant," or merchants' society. 

The law of the gild of Southampton reads: "In the 
first place, there shall be elected from the gild merchant 
... an alderman, a steward, a chaplain, four skevins, and 
an usher." These men were "to execute the king's com- 
mands . . . and to keep the peace and protect the fran- 
chise and to do and keep justice to all persons as well 
poor as rich, natives or strangers. . . . The common 
chest shall be in the house of the chief alderman or of 

1 See pages 163, 202-204. 



264- 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



L.K 



j>i^ 



the steward, and the three keys of it shall be lodged 
with three discreet men . . . who shall loyally take care 
of the common seal, and the charters and the treasure of 
the town, and the standards ; . . . and 
nobody shall sell by any kind of meas- 
ure or weight that is not sealed [that 
is, inspected and passed by the officers 
of the gild]. . . ." ''And no one of 
the city of Southampton shall buy 
anything to sell again in the same city, 
unless he is of the gild merchant." 

Such a gild often grew rich from 
the dues and gifts of its members 
and could accomplish much in the 
fight of the people against the lords. 
It could buy hberties from the lord 
of the town and under the charter 
could establish self-government, with 
the gild ofiicers acting as the officers 
of the town and the gildsmen at their 
meetings making laws for the town 
and voting money to pave streets and 
build bridges. Under its rule busi- 
ness prospered, the town grew larger, 
and many men became wealthy. 

The whole plan of working in these 
towns of the Middle Ages was different 
from our plan. There were 
no great factories where 
hundreds of men worked at machines. 
The making and selling were done in 
a man's own home. Imagine, then, 
a harness maker's place. On the first 
floor in the front, coming close to the 



fi 



^ 



Medieval Shops 

On the first floor of the 
houses 



THE WORKERS 265 

street, was a little room where hung bridles and harness 
for sale. Back of that was a larger room, where work 
went on. Here two or three boys were cutting the leather 
or sewing up the harness. Perhaps the master's wife 
and daughter, too, were at work here. The master went 
about among his boys, telling how the work was to be 
done, correcting mistakes, giving out material, doing the 
hardest tasks himself, and going out to the little shop in 
front when a customer entered. 

These boys were his apprentices. Wishing to learn 
the trade of harness making, they had come here to 
practice. They had really become members of 
the master's family and had promised to stay tjces^*^" 
for seven years, to labor at the master's work 
from morning light to evening dusk, and to obey the 
master as a father. On his side the master had promised 
to give his apprentices food and bed, to pay them a small 
sum per week, to teach them his trade, to watch their 
morals and their religion, to be a father to them. In the 
two or three rooms on the second floor of the house these 
young apprentices lived with the master's family, and per- 
haps slept in the attic under the steep roof. 

So a workman's house was his home and factory and 
store, all in one. A customer, entering the front door of 
the little shop to buy, might step back into the work- 
room to see his leather cut ; and might, if he was a friend, 
be invited to go upstairs to the living room for a mug of 
ale, after the sale was made. 

One little family shop like this could not make much 
harness, and so a large town would have per- 
haps twenty such places. All these harness ^^^* p*^<*^ 
makers came to feel that they could carry on j^^^^ ^ 
their business better if they met and made 
plans together. The gild merchant did not satisfy them. 



266 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



There were men of all trades in it. It was more interested 
in the governing of the town and in the management of 
markets than in the special problems of the harness makers. 
So these workers formed a new gild just for themselves. 
Soon every craft followed the example. There were 
gilds for bakers, tailors, goldsmiths, spurriers, arrow 




A Goldsmith's Shop 

Jewelry and silver dishes are on the table and hanging from the rod. Piles of 
money lie on the table. A gentleman is bargaining with the goldsmith. A 
servant is carrying the purchases already made. A clerk is writing down the 

sales in a book 

makers, and all the rest. Each gild chose officers, built 
a hall for its meetings, levied dues to pay expenses, 
perhaps decided upon a uniform for all its members, 
made rules about hours of work, prices, treatment of 
apprentices, and many other such matters. Best of all, 
the gilds used their influence to get honest work in 
their craft and decent behavior among their members. 

For example a certain William Peeke, an English tailor, 
abused his servant — bruised his arm and broke his head. 
The servant complained to the gild, and the gild made 
the master pay the servant's doctor's bill and his board 
for the months while he was recovering, and compelled 



THE WORKERS 267 

him to give the servant a good sum of money besides. 
Moreover, they fined the master as a member of the gild 
''for his misbehaving against the craft." 

The gild of the makers of spurs had a rule against 
cheating that read thus : ''No one shall cause to be sold 
or exposed for sale, any manner of old spurs for new ones, 
or shall garnish them or change them for new ones." 
This same gild had another rule "that no one of the trade 
of spurriers shall work longer than from the beginning of 
the day till curfew . . . , by reason that no man can work 
so neatly by night as by day. . . . And further many of 
the said trade are wandering about all day, without work- 
ing at all at their trade, and then when they have become 
drunk and frantic, they take to their work to the annoy- 
ance of the sick and all their neighborhood, by reason of 
the broils that arise between them and the strange folks 
who are dwelling among them. And then they blow up 
their fires so vigorously that their forges begin all at once 
to blaze, to the great peril of themselves and all the 
neighborhood around. . . . By reason thereof, it seems 
unto them [that is, the officers of the gild], that working 
by night should be put an end to, in order such false work 
and such perils to avoid. And therefore the mayor and 
the aldermen [of the gild] do will, by the assent of the good 
folks of the said trade, and for the common profit that 
from henceforth such time for working and such false 
work made in the trade shall be forbidden." The men 
who made that rule were working not only for honesty 
in their trade but for order and decency in their 
town. 

Moreover, the gilds compelled their members to give 
vacations to their apprentices and to take the same 
vacations themselves — all Sundays and saints' days and 
Saturday afternoons, and more than a month at Christmas. 



268 THE NEWER NATIONS 

Nor was one member of the gild allowed to try to get a 
brother member's business away from him by selling at 
a lower price or by buying up all the material that was 
for sale or by inviting his brother's customers to his shop 
or by taking his workmen from him. Indeed, a certain 
gild had this law : ''And if any one of the said trade shall 
have work in his house that he cannot complete ; or if, 
for want of help, such work shall be in danger of being 
lost, those of the said trade shall aid him, that so the 
said work be not lost." This, surely, was a proof of 
brotherhood. 

So was another law of this same gild. "If by chance 
any one of the said trade shall fall into poverty, whether 
through old age or because he cannot labor or work, and 
have nothing with which to keep himself, he shall have 
every week from the [gild] box, seven pence for his support, 
if he be a man of good repute. And after his decease, if 
he have a wife, a woman of good repute, she shall have 
weekly for her support seven pence from the said box, 
so long as she shall behave herself well and keep single." 
Almost every gild, in fact, cared lovingly for its sick 
members and respectfully buried the dead. 

But the chief advantages of belonging to a gild were 
business ones. Each gild usually made it unlawful for 
any man not a gild member to make or sell any goods 
inside the town. A blacksmith from another village, for 
instance, might not bring his goods into a town and offer 
them for sale. Neither might a baker, or a tailor, or any 
other tradesman come in from outside and open a shop. 
The business of the town was saved for its own people 
and its own gild members. Therefore it paid a spurrier 
to join the spurriers' gild, a brewer the brewers' gild. 

So through all western Europe there grew up free 
cities, rich and beautiful, with their busy gilds. None of 



THE WORKERS 



269 



these was richer, or more beautiful, than was Florence 

in northern Italy . She was walled, of course, 

like cities of the time, for she had many jeal- Florence, 

ous enemies. Her men were trained to arms ; ^j^y 

for she had conquered cities roundabout and 

needed to hold them to obedience. When the great 




An Old View of Florence 

Notice the wall all around it. The large dome is that of the cathedral. The 
low, eight-sided building at its right is the Baptistry. The bell tower is be- 
tween them. To the left of the cathedral stands the tower of the town hall 



bell rang from the tower of the town hall, the people ran 
to the square ready for war. 

(^Florence was full of rich cloth merchants. They brought 
brilliant dyes and raw silk from the East) (They 
planted mulberry trees and learned to raise silkworms. 
They were always experimenting with dyes in order to 



270 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



find rich, lasting colors. They wove brocaded silks and 
cloth of goM that were as beautiful and as precious as 
those which came from far China, They made woolen 
cloth that was more beautiful than any other city could 
make. They even took the clot h of Fla nders, the great 
weaving country, colored it with their wonderful dyes, 
trimmed it, finished it, pressed it, and sent it back twice 
as valuable as when it carnej 

The Florentine markets were among the busiest of the 
world. They were open squares like the market-places 
of Athens and Rome. Every day they were 
crowded with tables and benches and little 
stalls under awnings. Here were all common things 



Business 




A Corner of a Market in Florence 

We see scales like the fish merchant's to-day. The woman who is standing has 

a string of dried figs over her arm. The woman at the left is spinning with 

hand spindle and distaff while she waits for customers 

from the farms for sale, — flowers, fruit, vegetables, milk, 
wine, bread, cheese. There were barbers' shops, too, 



THE WORKERS 271 

and doctors' stalls. There was a special market for fish 
and meats and cattle. Still another was for richer 
merchants, — goldsmiths, bankers and money lenders, 
makers of gorgeous silks and embroidered cloths. 

But not all the goods of Florentines were on sale in 
these markets. On every street, tucked into the corners 
of fine palaces and the lower stories of poor houses, were 
shops of a hundred sorts, — shops of silk weavers, wool 
weavers, dyers, armorers, pot makers, blacksmiths, jew- 
elers, bow-and-arrow makers, tanners, saddle makers, 
shoemakers, carpenters, bakers, ropemakers, glass blowers. 
And in these shops and in the markets and the gild- 
halls were the proudest, the richest, the best dressed, and 
the most honored gentlemen of the city. For after the 
gilds had become strong, and the traders had grown rich, 
and the nobles had been put down, no man in Florence 
was ashamed to be a craftsman or a merchant. Indeed, 
many noblemen entered trade and became members of 
gilds. 

The people of Florence were educated and brilliant, 
and they loved learning. "Tailors left their benches, to 
attend the Greek lecture. Blacksmiths laid aside their 
hammers for the pen of history, wool carders found time 
to study law, barbers sought the chair of poetry," and even 
the donkey boys loved good verses. In fact, the people 
were lovers of all kinds of beauty, like the Athenians of 
olden time. 

They devotedly loved their city, too, as the Athenians 
had loved theirs, and they made of Florence a newer 
Athens. She was one of the great money- 
centers of Europe, and she was also a center ^"^ 

-,,,.__, . , _ Florence 

01 art and learning. No other city ever had 

so many great painters and sculptors and builders and 

writers at one time. About the year 1490 on almost any 



272 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



day a visitor to Florence might have counted on her 
streets five or six artists who were famous the world over. 




A Street Corner in Florence 

A saint is preaching. Notice how narrow the street is, and the almost blank 
walls of the houses coming close to it. An old Italian painting 



The skilled hands of these artists and the money of these 
merchants made Florence one of the most beautiful spots 
in the world. They covered the inside walls of her 



THE WORKERS 273 

churches and her palaces with paintings. They decked 
her altars and porticoes and fountains with statues. 
They constructed buildings with dignified fronts as 
beautiful as a picture. Every street in Florence to-day 
is material for an artist's pencil. 

Suppose, for example, that you were standing in the 
Cathedral Square. Out near the center of it is the 
Baptistry, the little church where every child 
born in Florence during the last 800 years has „ ^. _ 

1 • 1 /^ 1 Baptistry 

been baptized. One pair of its bronze doors 
a sculptor spent forty years in making. They are like 
a page from some great, marvelous picture book. There 
is a margin of sculptured flowers and fruit and tiny 
statues of saints, all cast in bronze. Within this margin 
are ten bronze reliefs of Bible stories. Every little figure 
is perfectly modeled. Some of them are drawn in the 
background in relief. Others stand out in front as little 
statues. Michael Angelo, a Florentine, and one of the 
world's greatest artists, once stood gazing at these doors 
in joy, and he said, ''They are so beautiful that they 
might fittingly stand at the gates of Paradise." 

But the Baptistry, with its wonderful gates, is only one 
beauty of this square. At the side of it towers a great 
cathedral with one of the largest domes of 
the world — the first dome built in western ^ ^ ^ 

Tower 

Europe after the days of the Romans, and 
its maker was' a Florentine. Near the corner of this 
church there rises the bell tower, that has called the 
Florentines to prayer for six hundred years. It stands 
high and slender, every inch of it delicately carved, cut 
through with long, graceful windows, seeming so light 
that a wind might stir it. Nor is it all of cold, white 
marble. There are lines of rose color and dark green, 
and the whole body of white has grown into a rich cream. 





1 ^-eit^^t* ,.»^>^.S..^.'- 


_>^: W: ■- 




■jBpmwp-''' 



The Bronze Doors of the Bapti.sthy 



[274] 



THE WORKERS 



275 




A great Englishman who loved it has said that it is 
''colored like a morning cloud, and chased like a sea 
shell." The Florentines, themselves, call 
it "angel-builded." 

One other building may give a hint of 
the beauties of Florence. It is on a street 
where in old days were the gild The 
halls and the shops of artists. Church 
It is a little square church three q-^^ 
stories high, with enough beauty Emblems 
on its four outer walls to feed the hearts 
of a city. One window alone would make 
a whole building rich, it is so lovely with 
columns and interlaced curves and gar- 
lands all carved in stone. Between the 
windows are statues of Christian saints, 
standing in marble niches, looking down 
upon the passers-by and reminding them 
to live holy lives and to love goodness 
and beauty. 

Above every statue, set into the dark 
stone wall, is a round tile of terra cotta 
with soft blues and greens and cream, 
under a shining glaze. Framing every 
plaque is a modeled and painted garland 
of fruit and flowers. In one circle is the 
Madonna with the Child, and the lilies 
waving beside her. That is the sign that 
the gild of apothecaries and physicians 
carried upon its banners. On another 
plaque are a white lamb and a flying flag, and iris 
blossoms. That is the mark of the gild of wool weavers. 
In another circle an eagle spreads his wings and clutches 
a bale of cloth in his talons. It is the sign of the cloth 




The Bell Tower 



276 THE NEWER NATIONS 

merchants. And so over every niche is the coat of 
arms of one of the great gilds of Florence. For it was 
they who helped to build this church and who gave these 
statues in token of their worship of God and their love 
of Florence. Indeed, just across the narrow lane from 




The Arms of the Apothecaries and Physicians 

the church is the gild house of the wool weavers, where 
they held their meetings and where their officers lived. 

This little church of Or San Michele, the "gates of 
Paradise," the bell tower, and the great cathedral, are 
only four out of hundreds of beautiful things that make old 



THE WORKERS 277 

Florence lovely. There are churches, their walls bright 
with marvelous pictures of Christ and angels and saints. 
There are palaces with beautiful fountains and staircases 
in their courtyards. Around the sides of open squares 
are porticoes, their columns gracefully shaped, and bright 
plaques of terra cotta set into their walls. There are 
statues in churches and piazzas. A lifetime is not too long 
for becoming acquainted with the beauties of Florence. 
^And this was not the only city of Europe where all the 
people loved beauty, where men were eager to give money 
to make their city lovely, where artists were willing to 
spend many years upon a single statue or altar or crucifix. 
All Europe is still full of churches, palaces, pictures, 
statues, that were made in this blossoming time of art. 
And this age of beauty, remember, is also the age of the 
gilds. Many of the loveliest cities were the ones where 
the gilds were strongest, the free cities who gloried in 
their independence. 

1/ 

Traders 

The way in which trading was carried on in those days 
differed from our way. For one thing it was much more 
difficult to send goods from place to place. 
There were no railroads, there were not even 
stage-coaches. Moreover, the roads were poor and unfit 
for wheeled wagons. There were no continuous streams 
of goods flowing to and fro across the country, as there 
are now. In seaport towns people could buy many kinds 
of strange things from far-off shores, brought by ships. 
But in inland places people had to be content with little. 

Now and then peddlers visited them, bringing foreign 
goods in packs on their own backs or on horses. _ , „ 

Peddlers 

They were welcomed at castles and spread 

out their stock in the courtyard for servant lasses and 



278 THE NEWER NATIONS 

lads and the rough soldiers to buy. Sometimes they 
were invited into the ladies' bower to show their goods 
to gentler eyes. They went through the street of a 
peasant village, calling out their wares in some such song 
as this : 

Will you buy any tape, 

Or lace for your cape, 

My dainty duck, my dear-a? 

Any silk, any thread. 

Any toys for your head, 

Of the newest and finest, finest wear-a ? 

But by the time a piece of leather from Spain had 
traveled in a ship for three or four months, lain in a 
merchants' storehouse in a German seaport, and been 
packed along dangerous country roads to a village a 
hundred miles inland, it was too expensive for a poor 
cobbler or harness maker to buy. So most men had to 
use only the things produced around their own town, 
except for the salt and the pepper and the spices, which 
could be found only in far countries, and they were much 
more expensive than they are to-day. 

These peddlers were only merchants on a small scale. 
Greater traders also had to carry goods sometimes from 
town to town. They, too, had to pack them on horses, 
and themselves rode with the pack train. For the sake 
of safety they always went in large companies and even 
hired strong, warlike fellows to go with them to protect 
the train against robbers. This land travel was a slow 
way, a costly way, and a dangerous way. 

It was better, whenever it was possible, to go by flat- 
boats on rivers. There was no expense of buying and 
feeding horses, and it was possible sometimes to escape 
from enemies by keeping to the middle of the river. Yet 
there was danger from river pirates, from robber barons 



THE WORKERS 



279 




Landing at a Seaport 
As they land, strangers must pay toll to the coast guard. Notice the docks 

whose castles lay on the banks, and from accidents of 
upsetting. There were, too, river tolls to pay at every 
ford and every bridge. Little wonder that prices were 
high! 

The best way of all to travel was on the sea. Of 
course, there were storms, but boats had improved since 



28o 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



Viking days.^ The ship of earher times had been a 
great rowboat with a temporary sail. The vessel that 
medieval merchants used was a ship with one, 
two, or even three high masts. It needed a 
crew of thirty or forty men to work it. It had a real 
rudder, while the Vikings and Greeks had used an oar for 




Merchant Ships Carrying Soldiers 

Notice the crow's nest on the mast. The ship nearer us is a galley. The 

rowers sit in galleries built on outside the vessel. The artist has drawn the 

men too large for the ships 

steering. The ship was perhaps a hundred feet long and 
would carry hundreds of men, if need was. At bow and 
stern were decked spaces for shelter from storm and cold. 
All the central part was undecked — a great open place for 
storing goods, and it would hold perhaps three hundred 
tons. This heavy boat could not be drawn up on shore, as 

1 See page 157. 



THE WORKERS 281 

the Vikings and Greeks had done with theirs. She an- 
chored in a bay and sent out rowboats, as our ships do now. 

But, even as in Viking days, a vessel had to be both 
merchant ship and warship, all in one. So in the for- 
ward and after ends were platforms with bulwarks about 
them where men stood to fight. People called these 
walled platforms castles, and fighting from them was 
much like fighting from the wall of a stone castle on land. 
Men used the same weapons — bows and arrows and 
hurling engines. Near the top of the tall mast, also, was 
a crow's nest, or fighting-top, where a guard was always 
stationed to watch for rocks or shoals or, worse still, for 
pirates ; and there, in time of battle, men stood to fight. 

Just as the men of a town combined into gilds for the 
sake of protecting their liberty against their lords, so 
cities often banded together for the same 
reason, with the added purpose of helping Lg^aTug **^ 
trade and protecting their traders against pi- 
rates. One of the strongest of these associations was the 
"Hanseatic League." Germany was a distracted country 
after the days of Frederick 11.^ There was no emperor, 
or rather there were two or three at a time, all fighting 
for possession and caring nothing for the safety and 
prosperity of their people. There were pirates on the 
sea and robbers on the country roads and no warships or 
armies to hold them in check. 

Many of the German cities were filled with craftsmen and 
merchants and gilds, just as Florence was. They wished 
to trade with the ruder nations around the Baltic Sea, — 
Russians and Poles and the Viking races of Denmark and 
Sweden and Norway. These peoples were only beginning 
to make things for themselves. They were, consequently, 
eager to buy, and it was profitable to trade with them. 

» See page 173. 



Longitude 15° W. from 10° Greenwich .5° 



0° Longitude 5° E. from 10° Green- 15° wich 20° 




IN THE MIDDLE AGES 

" Land lOtBtes 

• •*••••• 'Water routes 
,1 Hanse water routes 

o— o^ Venetian water routes 
^4.4.4.4.4. Genoese water routes 

SCALE Of MILES 



50 100 200 300 400 500 



Cities with names underlined are important Hanseatic towns. 
[282] 



25° 30° 35 




Those heavily underlined are foreign Hanseatic factories. 
[283] 



284 THE NEWER NATIONS 

Therefore, since the government could not protect 
them, the trading cities of Germany and the neighboring 
countries banded together into the Hanseatic League. 
At one time more than eighty tgw»» belonged to it. 
Men were elected from the gilds of each place to go to a 
congress in one of the cities. Here they decided what 
share of money each town was to contribute to the League, 
they elected officers, ordered ships to be built, hired 
horsemen to police the roads between their cities, made 
laws to govern their merchants in foreign lands. Their 
ships sailed to and fro across the Baltic, carrying to the 
towns of Sweden and Norway and Denmark and Russia 
the cloth and jewelry and leather goods made by German 
craftsmen, and bringing back the furs, pitch, lumber, 
amber, tallow, fish, iron, copper, tar, and salt of the 
North. 

Sometimes a trading expedition was turned into a war 
against pirates. Sometimes, too, the ships of the League 
were not welcome in a foreign city. Often the native 
merchants were jealous of the newcomers and rose up and 
drove them out and even burned the storehouses where 
their goods were. In cases like this, the men of the 
League often made war upon the unfriendly city. In 
towns where the native merchants had already formed 
gilds, these gilds sometimes made it very unpleasant and 
difficult for the visitors. The foreigners were taxed for 
whatever they bought or sold, and certain things they 
were not allowed to sell at all. They might not remain 
longer than the town gild was willing to have them. 
They were forced to live with some gildsmen of the town 
who could keep an eye on them. 

But gradually the League begged a privilege here and 
bought one there and fought for one in another place. 
And as they grew stronger, their ships more numerous. 



THE WORKERS 285 

their cashbox fuller, no people dared insult them, for 
they answered with war. They even declared war 
against kings and won. So in some cities they were 
given land and were allowed to build storehouses for 
their goods, dwellings for their merchants, a hall for their 
meetings, a dock for their ships. 

The greatest of these factories, as they were called, 
were at NnygoroH in R ussi_a , Bergen in S weden , Lo ndon 
in England, and Bruges in Flanderg. At these factories 
officers and merchants of the League Uved all the year 
round, dwelling together like brothers, eating at the 
same table, all going to bed at a given signal, doing 
business and playing games together. These Hanse 
men were the real lords of some of the foreign towns 
where they had posts, ^n Bergen, for instance, there 
were three thousand of them, and they owned the 
city, allowing the natives to live only where the Hanse 
willed, and not permitting them to own ships or to go 
to sea.^ 

The cities that they honored grew great and rich from 
the business that the League brought. Moreover, the 
goods and the manners and the knowledge of cultured 
Europe went in the Hanseatic ships to the less cultured 
lands of the North. /These Hanse traders did for Scan- 
dinavia and Russia what the old Greek traders had done 
for Italy and France) 

European traders covered not only all of Europe, but 
the African and Asiatic shores of the Mediterranean, 
besides. The Hanseatic towns took care of most of the 
northern trading. From Russia and Scandinavia they 
brought down largely useful things, and most people, of 
course, had to be satisfied with these. But the wealthy 
people — nobles and bishops and the monks in rich 
monasteries — hungered also for beautiful things. 



286 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



The East 



Now, the place where people were most trained in 
making things of beauty was the East. There was 
western Asia, that Alexander long ago had con- 
quered.^ Here he had found Persians dressed in 
gorgeous red and purple and golden embroidery and bath- 
ing their hands in golden bowls. Here he had found the 
king's army tent sweet with perfumes and burning 
incense. During the hundreds of years since Alexander 
the country had kept all its gorgeousness. 

There was Arabia, too, with its rose gardens and silk 
tapestries and delicate wines and heavy perfumes and rare 




Traders Landing at an Eastern Town 



fruits, — oranges, peaches, pears, pomegranates. Behind 
that was India, a land of gold and silk and carved ivory, of 
great temples, rich with statues of marble and bronze. For 
India even then was the home of an old race, who had 
been writing books and building palaces when even the 
Greeks had been a half-civihzed people. And there were 
the islands of the sea beyond India, where grew rare spices 
for preserving food, — cloves, pepper, cinnamon, allspice, 

^ See page 63. 



THE WORKERS 287 

nutmegs, — and choice woods for making beautiful crosses 
and altars and tables. Sweet-smelling things they had, also, 
to make perfumes for the toilet of elegant nobles and ladies, 
and incense to burn before holy altars in churches. And yet 
farther away, in the dim East, was China, from which came 
embroidered silk and costly carvings and precious gems. 

Everything, indeed, that was gorgeous and rare and 
costly came to Europe from Asia, and she seemed to the 
men of medieval France and Italy and Spain and Ger- 
many and England like a real fairyland, filled with beauty 
and richness and magic. One of these Eastern lands is 
thus described by a medieval author, in a letter which 
its king himself is supposed to write. The description is 
not true, doubtless, but it shows what Europeans of the 
time thought of the East. 

''Over the gables of our palace," the king is supposed 
to say, " are two golden apples, in each of which are two 
carbuncles, so that the gold may shine by day and 
the carbuncles by night. . . . The [doors] are of ebony, 
the windows are of crystal. The tables are partly of gold, 
partly of amethyst, and the columns supporting the tables 
are partly of ivory, partly of amethyst." 

How to get the riches of this wonderful world of the 
East into the West was the great problem of medieval 
merchants. Between these Eastern peoples 
who wanted to sell and the Western peoples who Trade 
wanted to buy were thousands of miles of land, g^st 
with steep mountains, cold, barren plains, and 
dry, hot deserts; with unknown tribes that hated 
strangers. From Germany to China, or even from Italy 
to India, was too long a way and too strange a way for 
merchants to go. But the East was as eager to sell and 
buy as the West was. So each people brought their 
goods half the way. 



288 THE NEWER NATIONS 

There were different routes of travel from the East. 
One of them ended at Novgorod in northern Russia. 
Chinese merchants who hved near the Hoang-Ho 
Route^™ River put their bundles into slow river boats and 
rowed them or perhaps sailed them upstream 
as far as they could go. There they sold them, perhaps, 
to other merchants, who packed them upon horses and 
carried them by land for hundreds of miles to the Irtish 
River. Here perhaps a Western merchant bought them, 
loaded them again into boats, and floated them down- 
stream toward the northwest. But where the river 
made a sharp turn northward into barren lands that 
border the Ai'ctic Sea, he stopped and sold his goods to 
another man, who packed them across land to the Kama 
River. Here they were sold again, perhaps, and went 
down the Kama to the great Volga and up the Volga as 
far as boat could go. Perhaps here they changed hands 
again, went overland to the Lovat and down this to 
Novgorod the Great. 

But not only Chinese goods had been coming toward 
Novgorod. With just as many changes from horse or 
camel to boat and back again, there had been coming, for 
many months, shawls and fine cotton cloth and diamonds 
and gold from India, furs from the north country, leather 
and lumber and beeswax from parts of Russia. And here 
at Novgorod sat the Hanseatic merchants ready to buy 
these things, to load them upon river boats, to float them 
down to the Baltic Sea, to put them into their good ships 
and carry them to the towns of Germany, Holland, Den- 
mark, Sweden, Norway, England. Moreover, they had 
brought to sell whatever the West could make — woolen 
cloth, iron goods, wine, salt. y 

That fair at Novgorod must have been a wonderful 
sight. It went on for several weeks in the summer. 



THE WORKERS 



289 



A Fair 



There were hundreds of people to visit it. Every inn 

must have been so crowded that men slept on the floors. 

Many of the merchants, doubtless, put up tents 

of cloth or skin or brush and camped on the 

edge of town. The Hanse traders, perhaps, invited a 

few of the richest visitors to be their guests in their large, 

comfortable buildings, 

where everything could 

be securely locked at 

night, inside the stout, 

high fence, with guards 

and dogs, to keep all safe. 

The town was busy with 

nothing but the great 

fair. There were a few 

shops where costly things 

could be displayed. 

Some merchants who 

dealt in precious goods 

built temporary huts for 

them. But most things 

were heaped up on the 

ground. In one place 

were hundreds of piles of 

furs. In another place 

were bundles of silks. 

Here were bags of salt. There were piles of German 

iron. So every kind of thing had its place. Hundreds 

of merchants walked about among the piles, chattering 

in a dozen different languages. ^ It was a place where 

the ends of the earth merv 

At the same time that "goods from northern and central 
Asia were traveling west and north to Novgorod, other 
things from southern Asia were taking a shorter journey to 




A Fair 

There seem to be Chinese characters on 

two of the parcels. Notice the scales. 

Another painted glass window 



290 THE NEWER NATIONS 

Constantinople or Damascus or Alexandria, — spices from 

Ceylon, perfume from Arabia, rugs from Persia, pearls 

and fine weaving from India. And merchants 

ou era ^£ Venice or of Florence or of Genoa. — three 

trading cities of Italy — met the East at these 

places and exchanged their goods at great fairs, like the 

one at Novgorod. 

At first the Ven etian s were the chief of these Italian 

traders. (They were children of the sea. \ In early times, 

", when their enemies had driven them from the 

Venice 

mainland, they had taken refuge on low islands 
near the coast. Here they had been safe, had grown 
strong, and had learned to sail the sea, because there 
was no other way to move about. Since sailors are almost 
always merchants, these Venetians had become traders. 
Because they were tucked away on the eastern side of 
Italy, it was the eastern end of the Mediterranean which 
interested them. Their ships went to the rich cities of 
Cairo and Constantinople and the other ports of Asia 
Minor and Egypt. Their merchants were welcome at 
these places, for they brought European woolen cloth 
and European money. 

Moreover, the Venetians had made friends in the East 
by giving help in time of war. The Greek emperor at 
Constantinople made a treaty with them, granting their 
merchants the right to ''buy and sell in all parts of the 
Greek empire unmolested by agents of the custom- 
houses, finances, and harbors. The latter were for- 
bidden to inspect their goods, or to subject them to any 
tax whatsoever." 

So the Venetian merchants built storehouses and 
dwellings for themselves in the busiest Eastern towns. 
Along the shores of Greece and Egypt and Asia w^as 
many a little Venice with its rich merchants, its ships 



THE WORKERS 291 

going and coming, its storehouses, and its own governor, 
sent over from the mother city. They were like the 
colonies and trading posts of old Greek days, and like 
the Hanse settlements at Novgorod and other northern 
towns. From these Eastern posts the Venetian merchants 
carried silk, cotton, indigo, camphor, pearls, diamonds, 
gold, ivory, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, allspice. 

All these things were taken to Venice, but there was 
more than Venice could use. So from here the busy 
traders carried them to other places. Every year a fleet 
of Venetian ships, even larger and stronger than the 
Hanse ships, sailed west through the Strait of Gibraltar, 
rounded Spain, and went on to England and Flanders. 
Here, at fairs much like the one at Novgorod, they met 
Hanse merchants and other men from the north coun- 
tries and traded goods with them. When the ships again 
reached Venice, after a year's absence, they brought to 
her English wool and tin, Russian furs and leather, Ger- 
man iron and amber, Swedish copper and tar and pitch. 

So Venice became Queen of the Adriatic and of the 
eastern Mediterranean. She won islands in the ^Egean 
Sea and strips of coast along the Adriatic and thus built 
up a little empire for herself. At home she had beautiful 
palaces and churches like those of Florence. She had 
two hundred ships of war. 

Each year her governor, or Doge, was rowed out to 
sea in a vessel decked with hangings of silk and em- 
broidery from the East. With him were great 
nobles and merchants of Venice in long glisten- ^^f*^*"^ 
ing robes, dyed with the purples and reds and Adriatic 
blues that their ships had brought from far 
lands. Behind the vessel came all the boats and gon- 
dolas of Venice crowded with her people. Priests sang, 
and one prayed, "Grant, O Lord, that this sea may be 



292 THE NEWER NATIONS 

to us, and to all who sail upon it, tranquil and quiet. 
Hear us, good Lord." Then the Doge threw into the 



The Doge op Venice Going in Procession through the City 

This picture was made in the sixteenth century. Fashions in clothes had 

changed since 1300. Men from the East looking from the windows show the 

great Eastern trade of Venice. The Doge's costly robes and the gorgeous 

parasol show the wealth of the city 



THE WORKERS 293 

sea a ring like a wedding ring, and cried, ''We espouse 
thee, O sea, in token of our just and everlasting union." 
Thus did proud Venice proclaim that she was the favorite 
of the sea, and the ruler of it. 

Most of this carrying and selling of rich goods, both in 
the North and the South, was done by men of common 
blood. To be sure, Frederick II had a fleet 
of merchant ships and sent them out to the 5^*^^ 

Traders 

East to buy, and to brmg back goods to the 
West for sale.^ But in general, princes and nobles still felt 
that any business, except the business of war, was un- 
worthy of gentlemen. So they sat in their castles or rode 
on their war-horses, encased in their armor and their 
pride, while merchants about them grew rich from their 
travels and their buying and selling. 

(But did this mean that all the common people were 
Ufted up out of poverty into comfort ? Did it mean that 
there were no longer any "poor in the cottage, charged with 
a crew of children and with a landlord's rent"?^ Did it 
mean that every man in a free town belonged to a powerful 
gild and had the privilege of helping to make the city laws ? 
By no means. It meant that half the common people, 
perhaps, had stepped up out of their slavery and poverty, 
some of them to a place only a little below princes. \ 

A new class had been formed. There were now not 
only the noble, proud of his blood, and the peasant, proud 
of nothing; but there was the rich man, proud of his 
riches. A certain German merchant ''sat upon a silver 
seat, and had his rooms hung with costly [tapestry]. 
When he married, he, like a royal personage, caused the 
road from his house to the church to be overspread with 
a Flanders carpet, while musicians played, day and night, 
before his door." But these rich men, though they were 

» See page 169. > See page 257. 



294 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



of common blood, were no more friends to the poor man 
than the nobles were. 

(j^ was the gilds who had been the best helpers of the 
poor man in his fight against his lord, but soon they 




Merchants Welcoming a Queen 

She is being carried to the Gate of Paris. There a bishop awaits her while 
ladies and a jester look down from the wall. Wealthy merchants on horseback 
line the streets to do her honor, and are themselves honored by being present 



deserted him and set up a new master over him. For 
Change almost every gild, as it grew old and powerful, 
in the grew proud and narrow and hard and forgot its 

Gilds early behef in brotherhood. Its richest mem- 

bers began to change its rules in order to shut out the 
poor man. It refused to take any new members, per- 
haps, except the sons of its old members. Or it raised 
the dues until no poor man could pay them. In this way 



THE WORKERS 295 

the gilds came to be rich men's societies ; and outside of 
them were the poor weavers, coopers, stonecutters, 
cobblers, eager to be hired by these richer brothers of their 
trades. And often they were hired at miserably low 
wages, so that they lived in poverty and discomfort. An 
old Florentine writer speaks of ''the hatred with which 
the lower classes always regarded the rich citizens and the 
heads of the gilds, because the workmen were always dis- 
satisfied with the wage they received." And many broils 
and much bloodshed this discontent caused in Florence, 
where the gilds were all-powerful, -— Jhe gilds which had 
once been poor men's brotherhoods but were now the 
poor men's hard masters^ 
yThe same thing became true of all the great manu- 
facturing and trading cities of Italy, France, Germany, 
the Netherlands, England. That same struggle between 
the workers and the men who hire them is still going on 
to-day. It is one of the old, unsettled questions that we 
have inherited from the Middle Ag^77 



1. Your grandfathers "rested" their land in the same way that 
men did in the Middle Ages. Find out whether farmers do it now, 
and, if not, what they do, instead, to keep their land fertile. 2. Collect 
pictures of modem farm implements. Mount them on cardboard and 
draw beside each one the old-fashioned way of doing the work that 
the implement does. 3. Should you rather be an apprentice in a shop 
like the medieval harness-maker's shop described on page 265 or a 
worker in a large modem harness factory? Why? 4. Tell somebody 
who belongs to a labor union about the old gilds and ask him whether 
they are at all like the unions and how they are different. 5. What is 
the difference between the fairs of the Middle Ages and the county 
and state fairs that we have now? 




Members of the Choir Sitting in Their Stalls 
AT Church 

A bishop is reading from a missal which a boy holds. 

Notice the bishop's cap and his staff, or crosier. It is 

made like a shepherd's crook, because the bishop is the 

shepherd of his people 



CHAPTER XII 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 

Christian Missionaries 

By Constantine's time Christianity had become the 
chief rehgion of the Roman empire.^ But that did not 
satisfy Christians. They wanted it to be the rehgion of 
the whole world. With some it was a matter of pride : 
they longed to see their church the mistress of the world. 
With many it was a matter of love : they believed that any 
who were not Christians would suffer after death, and they 
could not bear that thought. So men kept going out 

^ See page 135. 
296 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 297 

among the heathen to preach, as Paul and the apostles had 
done in the beginning,^ and as men are still doing to-day. 

When the fierce Angles and Jutes and Saxons came 
into England,^ they still worshiped Woden and Thor. 
But about six hundred years after Christ, 
Augustine, a saintly priest, with forty helpers, Augustine 
was sent from Rome to convert these English.^ -„„ ^ j) 
The king of Kent, learning that they were come, 
bade them remain on a certain little island until he should 
go to meet them. 

Bede, an English bishop, who lived a hundred years 
or more after this time, tells of that meeting in his book. 
''Some days after, the king came into the island, and sit- 
ting in the open air, ordered Augustine and his com- 
panions to be brought into his presence, for he had taken 
precaution that they should not come to him in any house, 
lest, according to an ancient superstition, if they prac- 
tised any magical arts, they might impose upon him and 
so get the better of him. But they came furnished with 
divine, not with magic virtue, bearing a silver cross for 
their banner and the image of our Lord and Savior 
painted on a board ; and singing the litany they offered 
up prayers to the Lord for the eternal salvation both of 
themselves and of those to whom they were come." 

The king allowed them to enter the greatest of his 
cities and to dwell there. They lived sweetly, praying 
and preaching ; many people were baptized, and presently 
the king himself. Churches were built, and old temples 
purified, — the idols destroyed, holy water sprinkled, 
and altars set up. 

Even so, it was long before all England had become 
Christian. The new rehgion began in a southern comer 
and only slowly spread through the whole country. A 

1 See page 130. ^ See page 182. ' See note on page 187. 



298 THE NEWER NATIONS 

hundred years or more after Augustine, however, Chris- 
tian England herself began to send out missionaries to 
other lands about her who were yet heathen — to the 
Swedes and the Danes and the Germans. 

One of the greatest of these Christian teachers was 
Boniface. Many missionaries before him had worked in 
Germany, and here and there were small churches with 
Boniface little bands of Christians. Yet these were so 
among the few and SO Weak that they were lost in the 
Germans, great heathen mass of the German nation ; and 
'^^ ' ' Boniface was eager to convert the whole people. 
Indeed, inside of seventeen years after he began to work, 
one hundred thousand people were baptized. 

He went about it in a way somewhat different from 
that in which earlier missionaries had worked. He built 
chiu-ches as the others had done, but instead of settling 
down with his first church he left it in charge of two or 
three helpers who had come with him from England, 
while he pushed on into new places to found new churches. 
Now, Boniface had seen other new Christians who, left 
alone in the heathen lands, had sunk back into their old 
heathen customs. So he planned to bind all his German 
churches together that they might become a part of a 
great Christian world, sisters among sisters and all obedient 
to the same father, the pope. 

Church Organization 

There was a wonderful family of churches in Europe 
at that time, all knit together from the lowest priest to 

the mighty pope. It was done in this way. 
Pnests ^|. gygj.y church there were priests to preach, 
Bishops to &^^ communion, to hear the confessions of 

their people. In some great churches there were 
many, as well as the priests' assistants with their dif- 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



299 



ferent duties of singing, of reading the scriptures, of 
carrying the sacred vessels. One priest was chosen to 
be head of this company, and a deacon to be in charge 
of the assistants. 

Over all the churches of a certain region ruled a bishop. 
He received new members, created priests, planned the 




A Bishop Ordaining a Priest 



services for all his churches, advised all the priests and 
assistants, and punished them if it became necessary. He 
visited the churches of his district, or diocese, and he 
called meetings of his priests to consider church questions. 
There were about thirty bishops in England and three or 
four times as many in France and Germany. These 



300 THE NEWER NATIONS 

bishops must not stray too far apart, so an archbishop 
was in charge of ten or twenty of them. He held meet- 
ings for discussions and lawmaking. 

Standing above all these priests and bishops and arch- 
bishops was the pope/ whom people regarded as Christ's 
special representative on earth, supreme ruler 
of all the church and father of all Christian 
people. To him bishops and archbishops reported the 
condition of their priests, their people, their finances. 
From him they sought advice and took laws. He was the 
mightiest ruler of the world, and ruled the greatest of all 
kingdoms — western Christendom. To help him with his 
work he had cardinals. They assisted when he said mass, 
they carried his messages to princes and kings, they were 
ready to advise if he asked them and to do anything that 
he willed. In order to keep the whole Christian world 
still more closely linked, the pope held great councils now 
and then to discuss large matters and to make church laws. 
To these councils came cardinals, archbishops, bishops, 
abbots, and even the most learned and wise of the lower 
priests. Thus the pope, besides being a priest of God, was 
a mighty lord among men, and in the same way bishops 
and cardinals were princes and the equals of kings. 

It was into this great Christian family that Boniface 
led his churches, when the pope made him archbishop of 
all Germany. With the help and encouragement of this 
wonderful organization the German church prospered 
and spread. 

Monasteries 

Another thing that Boniface did for the Germans was 
to build monasteries among them. Monasteries were 
wonderful institutions, and this is how they came to be. 

*See pages 164-165. 




A Cathedral of the Middle Ages 
Built in the thirteenth century at Rheims, France 



[301] 



302 THE NEWER NATIONS 

Many people of those times felt that the world was 
wicked or that it was frivolous. A man found that when 
he lived with his family, his mind was most of the time 
busy with thoughts of them. If he worked in the world 
to make his living, his mind was full of business and 
money affairs. ''I want to think only about God," he 
said to himself. ''I must run away from all these things 
that hold my soul down to the earth. I must forget my 
business, my family, my body. I must remember only 
God." 

In trying to cut their souls loose from all earthly 
interests men at first did what seem to some of us strange 
things. They fled into the deserts and lived alone in 
caves, thinking there to find time to muse upon God's 
goodness. They kept themselves awake for many days 
and nights together, that they might pray continually. 
They said: "It is our bodies that keep our souls from 
God. They make us think of food and drink and com- 
fort and pleasure." So they punished their bodies by 
starving them, by lashing them with whips, by leaving 
them bare in the cold, and by dressing them in rough, 
harsh clothes. Some men almost made skeletons of them- 
selves, thinking that in this way their souls would be free 
to dwell upon thoughts of God. 

Benedict, a young Italian nobleman, was one of these 
people who fled from men in order to be with God. When 
Benedict he was only fifteen years old he went alone 
and His j^to the bare, desert mountains near Rome. 
„" ^, There he found a little gorge with sides so steep 

526 (?) that it was almost like a pit. He lived here for 
AD. three years, only one man knowing where he 

was. This man visited him sometimes and let down to 
him a little bread by a rope. 

After a while people learned that Benedict was Uving 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 303 

a hermit's life there in the mountains, and they came to 
see him. They found him with wild hair and beard, his 
thin, weather-beaten body dressed in skins. But they 
found him full of wisdom, too, and gentleness and holi- 
ness. Now that men had discovered him, he left his 
rocky pit and went back into the world to preach. But 
his longing soul drew him back again into the wilderness. 
Yet men kept coming to ask him to teach them and to 
pray for them; and they begged that they might stay 
'with him. So at last he built there in the mountains 
twelve houses. And in these lived people who came flee- 
ing from wickedness and seeking goodness. 

But after a time there were troubles here, and Benedict 
with a few followers went away to a new place and built 
a new monastery where lovers of God might dwell to- 
gether in the wilderness. Many people came there, poor 
men and rich, old men and boys, drawn by the great 
fame of Benedict. He, seeing his home full of brothers, 
knew that there must be rules to govern so great a family ; 
moreover he had faith that the monastery would live for 
many years and that others would spring up from seeds 
sown by him; so he needed to think long and to pray 
earnestly in making his plans. 

The rules which he finally wrote we can still read to- 
day. The monks, as they were called, were to live 
together as brothers. They ate in one great room. 
They slept in little alcoves or cells opening off one large 
dormitory. Together they sang and prayed in the 
chapel. They were to be courteous and kind one to the 
other. Older monks called the younger ones ''brother," 
and the younger called the older "father." The younger 
always stood in the presence of the older brother and 
asked his blessing. The brothers were to live together 
simply and in loving equality. There were no rich 



304 



THE NEWER NATIONS 




clothes in the monastery. Every monk wore a long, 
loose robe of coarse stuff, and a cape with a hood, clean 
and warm, but poor and homely, giving no temptation 
to vanity. Nor did the monks have 
costly food. There were but two meals 
a day, and these consisted of only 
bread and vegetables and perhaps fruit 
and fish or fowl. 

There was no such thing as private 
wealth in the monastery. Every man 
when he became a monk put aside his 
money, giving it to some relative, to the 
poor, or to the monastery. The rule 
says: ''[The monk] should have abso- 
lutely not anything : neither a book nor 
A Monk with Gifts tables nor a pen, — nothing at all. For 

FOR His Monastery • j i •- • x n j j. i.i, ^ j. 

mdeed it is not allowed to the monks to 
have their own bodies or wills in their own power. But 
all things necessary they must expect from the Father 
of the monastery." 

This Father, or abbot, was to be chosen by the monks 
themselves. He was to rule the great family lovingly, 
but wisely and firmly. The brothers were to obey him 
absolutely. Any one who disobeyed him or who broke 
any of the rules was to be punished : he might not eat 
at the table with his brothers or go with them into 
the chapel to pray; he might not speak to them. He 
might, if the abbot thought best, be whipped ; or, if he 
continued disobedient, he might be expelled from the 
monastery. 

These men had come together for the sake of cleansing 
their souls and praising God. Seven times during the day 
they gathered in the church and sang psalms and prayers. 
The first of these services was at the dawning of the day, 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



305 



the last after sunset. At midnight, too, the monks arose 

from their sleep and went to church for prayer. 

The rule says, ''They shall sleep clothed and Worship 



girt with belts or with ropes. 



And let the 



Monastery 



monks be always on the alert." There was a 
Ubrary, too, stored with religious books. These the 
brothers borrowed and read alone in 
their little alcoves off the dormitory. 

The monks were to behave always 
in such a way that their minds and 
the minds of their brothers would be 
free to think of great things, not of 
little. The rule bids them to ''speak 
slowly and without laughter, humbly, 
with gravity, using few and reason- 
able words." At meal time all sat 
without speaking and listened to one 
who read to them out of some reli- 
gious book. And after the evening 
services they sat together again silent, 
while one read. 

But not all the day could be given over to prayer and 
reading ; for, after all, men's bodies must live. Food had 
to be cooked, floors had to be scrubbed, clothes 
had to be washed, garments had to be made. Wo'"^"^ 
At all these tasks the brothers took turns; no ^g^y 
work was thought to be mean. A monk who 
had lived as the son of a duke, perhaps, knelt and 
scrubbed a floor beside a man who had been his father's 
villain, and was glad in such a way to serve his brothers. 

Nor were these housekeeping tasks all the work that 
was done. "Idleness is the enemy of the soul," says the 
rule. "And therefore at fixed times the brothers ought 
to be occupied in manual labor." So the monastery 




An Abbot 



3o6 



THE NEWER NATIONS 




The Crowning of the Virgin Mary 

An old picture on the wall of a monastery in Florence, painted by a monk 
called Fra Angelico. Six saints are watching the coronation. The one at the 
right of the center is St. Francis, wearing the brown dress of the Franciscan 
order. Facing him is St. Dominic, wearing the black-and-white costume of the 
Dominicans. Behind him is St. Benedict. 

planned work for its monks. There was always the 
kitchen garden where vegetables for the table were 
grown. There were sheep to be tended, cows to be fed 
and milked, and butter and cheese to be made. There 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 307 

was fuel to be brought from the peat bogs or the forest. 
There were shoes to be cobbled, chairs to be mended, 
wooden platters and bowls for the tables to be made. 
Perhaps there was a vineyard with grapes to be gathered 
and made into wine. Each brother worked at some 
manual labor for seven hours each day. 

Men found life in the monasteries so cheering to their 
souls that thousands were built throughout Europe, some 
with Benedict's rule for their law, others with new rules, 
but all with the same purpose. Many women, also, felt 
the call to live holy lives, and convents were built for 
them, with the same sort of rules and much the same kind 
of costumes as were found in the monasteries. 

Some monasteries were like great workshops, others 
like great farms. This fact was one of the things that 
made them good civilizers. Imagine a large monastery 
built in the forests of Germany, where the people knew 
little about farming and manufacturing, but were content 
to live in a wild way in a wild forest. They would see 
the monks every day at work, cutting down trees, clearing 
land, draining swamps, plowing, planting, cultivating. 
They would see growing new crops that they had never 
seen before, the seed brought by some monk from his 
own more civilized country. They would see men using 
tools and making things of which they had never heard 
before. They would see new breeds of cattle and see 
them fed and treated in new ways. Moreover, the 
monks were eager to teach what 'they knew about farm- 
ing and industry, and soon their neighbors would be copy- 
ing their ways, borrowing their seed, buying their cattle, 
learning the habits of more civilized people. 

The monks were not content to teach only these manual 
arts, nor were their neighbors content to learn only these. 
They saw the monks reading books, they heard them 



3o8 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



sing, they listened to their talk of other lands and peoples 

and times. They wanted their sons to learn 

onastery ^^lese things also. Therefore the monks opened 

schools in their monasteries. Here they taught 

boys to read and write and to speak in Latin. That 

was the language of learning and of the church. All her 

prayers and masses and psalms were written in it ; for 

they had been made in the days when the Romans were 

masters of the world and 
when all men had spoken 
their language. 

Besides teaching boys 
how to read and farmers 

Book- ^^^ ^^ ^^ their 

making work better and 
in the all men how to 

Monastery ^-^^ together in 

peace and love, the monas- 
tery did another thing for 
civilization. The monks 
liked to have books to read, 
but books in those days 
were very rare and precious 
things. Nowadays printing is a rapid process ; 5000 copies 
of this book that you are reading were printed in 14 days. 
But in those early times men did not know how to print 
with type. Every book had to be written by hand. 

Nor was it written on sheets of paper ; for paper is 
another modern invention. It was done on sheepskin 
and calfskin. The monks themselves prepared this. 
They first soaked the hide in limewater to loosen the hair. 
Then they spread it on boards and cleaned it of the hair 
and flesh, washed it thoroughly, and stretched it on a 
frame to dry. After that it had to be pared and thinned 




A Monk in a Libraky 
Before him is a reading stand 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



3<59 




A Picture painted by a Monk in an Old Book 

It shows a new baby in Paris about the year 1400. The baby is wrapped in 

swaddling clothes. Notice the gentlemen's fur-lined cloaks and the soft shoes. 

These are probably wealthy merchants 

with sharp knives and rubbed smooth with pumice and 
chalk. At last it lay there a beautiful, clean, shining, 
creamy piece of vellum ready for the writing. 

A monk cut it into pieces of the right size for the pages 
of his new book. Suppose he were going to make a missal 



3IO 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



with the words of the mass, from which several brothers 
might read at once, as they stood shoulder to shoulder in 
the choir of the church. Perhaps he would cut his pages 
three feet long and two feet wide. He might need a 
hundred sheets or more, and it would take a goodly 
flock of sheep or calves to make such a book. 

With these fair, creamy pages he sat down in the library, 
or the scriptorium, with ink pot and brushes and little sticks 
of color. Carefully he began to paint on the precious vel- 
lum the great, sturdy black letters of the Latin hymns. 
But he was not content with the gloomy black ; the words 
seemed to him so beautiful that all the time pictures of joy 
were floating through his mind. And he thought, too, *'I 
must remind my singing brothers of the beauty of God's 
earth and of His word." So he dipped his brushes into 
bright colors and made flowers bloom on his page, along 

the margins and between the 
lines. And sometimes a 
spreading letter '' Y" took the 
form of an elm tree with a 
clambering grape vine laden 
with fruit. Or angels stepped 
from the top of' the capital 
"T." When all the pages 
were done, they were bound 
between boards made beauti- 
ful with silver nails and carved 
silver corners and clasps. To 
make such a book needed 

In it a monk is shown at work on a many mOUths. It WaS a labor 

^^^'^ of love ; only a lover of the 

words would have spent the time, and only an artist 
would have had the power to draw such pages. 

While one brother was making this missal, perhaps in 




Initial 



Letter from 
Manuscript 



AN Old 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 311 

the corner of the room another monk was reading slowly 
from some rare book while six or seven brothers sat near 
him at writing desks carefully printing the words again 
on vellum pages. Day after day they worked so, until 
they had made six or seven new copies of an old book. 
One of these was sent, perhaps, to the brothers of some 
friendly monastery who had longed to read the book, yet 
did not possess it. Perhaps one copy went to some great 
prince who cared for learning as Charlemagne or Alfred 
did. 

It was such work as this that saved for us until to-day 
the writings of olden times. When types were invented 
and we began to make books on printing presses, it was 
most often to old monasteries that people went to get 
the matter to be printed. The libraries were full not only 
of the writings of the church fathers who had Hved in 
the Middle Ages, but they were filled, also, with copies of 
old Roman and Greek works, for these monks had loved 
all learning. 

And sometimes the brothers did more than merely 
copy old books; they made new ones. A monk hved 
perhaps fifty, sixty, or eighty years and died, ^,^^^^^^^1^3 
but his monastery lived on. Some of them 
have lived through a thousand years of history, have seen 
kings come and go, wars rage, cities spring up and grow 
old, gilds flourish and die. In many of them the monks, 
though sitting apart from the world, yet heard of all these 
interesting things that happened and thought fit to write 
them down. At other times, a monk would keep a kind 
of diary of the happenings inside the monastery — what 
visitors came, what abbots were elected, what cures were 
performed, what holy deeds were done. After the death 
of the writer another continued the diary. Soon it came 
to seem a precious book, worth keeping and continuing. 



312 THE NEWER NATIONS 

It was given a place, perhaps, in the scriptorium, or 
writing room, and a monk was appointed to write in it 
all important happenings. Thus a chronicle or history 
of the time grew, month by month, and was preserved 
in the library. 

Now when we want to learn of a certain time in the 
Middle Ages, we look in the old monastery chronicles for 
information and see the very people of the time as the 
people of the time saw them. In this book that you are 
reading, I have quoted from several of these old monkish 
chronicles — from the one by William of Malmesbury, 
the one by Matthew Paris, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 

Monasteries had another use in early days. Remem- 
ber that roads were few and poor, but robbers were many 
Guests ^^^ bold. There was little travel; yet some 
at the men did travel, and on important business, 
Monas- but they found few places where they might 
^"^^ spend the night and get their meals. There 

were inns in towns, but they were crowded and noisy 
and too far apart for comfortable traveling. So the 
monasteries felt it their duty to open their gates to guests. 
They built houses for visitors, and stables for horses; 
and brothers were appointed to serve the strangers. 
The abbot himself invited them to his own table. 

Benedict's rule says: ''AH guests who come shall be 
received as though they were Christ ; for He himself said, 
'I was a stranger and ye took me in.' . . . When, there- 
fore, a guest is announced, the prior or the brothers shall 
run to meet him with every office of love. And first 
they shall pray together ; and thus they shall be joined 
together in peace. . . . The abbot shall give water into 
the hands of his guests ; and the abbot as well as the 
whole congregation shall wash the feet of all guests. . . . 
Chiefly in the reception of the poor and of the pilgrims 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



313 



shall care be most anxiously exhibited : for in them Christ 
is received the more." 

Some monasteries became very rich; for many men 
made presents to them because they loved the 
monks and because they loved God, and some- ^^*^ *** 
times because they were wicked and hoped in te^es 
this way to win forgiveness for their sins. 

In the reign of William the Conqueror, a certain 
Thorold made a good gift to the monastery of Croyland, 
namely his whole manor, with all the buildings and 
cattle and rents that serfs were paying. ''He applied 
himself with all diligence," the old chronicle says, ''to re- 
move his household from the said estate, and then to 
put his chapel in better condition, and to change the hall 
into a refectory, the chamber into a dormitory, and the 
place for exercise into a cloister for the monks. Besides 
this, he gave to the monks all the beasts of burden in the 
manor that were suited for the purposes of agriculture, 
and all the other implements and 
utensils that were [needed] for cook- 
ing, brewing, and baking." 

We have, moreover, the names 
of twelve other people who made 
gifts to Croyland. One of them 
was a countess, some were knights, 
others were servants of the king, — 
his butler, his cook, his messenger. 
Some of them gave only a few 
acres of land, others gave hundreds ^ ^^ift to^the Monas- 
of acres of meadow and marsh and 

plow land, with churches and mills and houses and poor 
cottages where villains lived. 

In such ways many monasteries came to own thousands 
of acres with farms and villages and castles upon them. 




314 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



Wealth 
of the 
Monas- 
teries 



The people on these farms and in these villages paid 
dues to the monastery, as other men did to 
their lords, and worked the monks' lands, as 
other peasants worked the lands of their lords. 
The knights of castles that were built on the 
lands of the monastery paid homage to the abbot, as 
other knights did to great dukes, and fought for him if it 
became necessary. So money and crops came pouring 
in. Much of this went to help the poor, perhaps ; for 
every monastery had officers appointed to care for the 
needy, to give them food and clothing, and to tend them 
if they were sick. Every day at a certain hour the poor 
came to the gates, and the monks gave out bread and 
wine. At a certain German monastery the monks gave 
help to thirty people every day. 

But much of this money went to make the monastery 

b eautif ul . 
Perhaps the 
altar would be 
covered over 
with wrought 
gold. Won- 
derful golden 
cups and 
pitchers and 
bowls would 
be bought to 
be used in the 
mass. Beau- 
tiful windows 
of s tained 

glass with pictures of Christ and the saints would be put 
into the chapel. A new church of stone, with carved 
doorways and a watching statue above, would be built. 



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NlNTH-CENTTTRY PlAN OF A MONASTERY (St. GaLL, SWITZERLAND) 

1. Large building unmarked on the original plan. 2. Servants' quarters. 3. Pigsty. 
4. Stable. 5. Cattle .shed. 6. Goat hou.se. 7. Sheep shed. 8. Brew-house and 
bakehouse for guests. 9. Towers with spiral staircases. 10. Guest house for the poor, 
with brew-house and bakehouse attached. 11. Another stable. 12. Quarters for serv- 
ants. 13. House for drying fruits. 14. Storehouse for grain for brewing. 15. Cooper 
shop and wood-turning shop. 16. Church. 17. Porter's lodge. IS. House for greater 
guests. 19. Cellar with storehouses above. 20. Kitchen for monks. 21. Brew-house 
and bakehouse for monks. 22. Buildings with mills. 23. Shops of shoemakers, sad- 
dlers, carvers, tanners, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, fullers, shield-makers, and sword- 
makers. 24. 1st floor, refectory; 2d floor, wardrobe. 25. Garth with cloisters. 
26. School-master's lodging. 27. School. 28. Abbot's house. 29. Home of visiting 
monks. 30. 1st floor, .scriptorium; 2d floor, library. 31. Dormitor\-, heating ap- 
paratus on 1st floor. 32. Baths. 33. CSrunary and threshing floor. 34. Hen-houses 
and duck houses. 35. Poultry-keeper's hou.se. 36. Kitchen garden. 37. Gardener's 
house. 38. Cemetery and orchard. 39. House for novices. 40. Chapel for novices 
and invalids. 41. Infirmary. 42. Garden of medicinal plants. 43. Physician's house. 
44. House for blood-letting 

l3iS] 



3i6 THE NEWER NATIONS 

Artists would be paid to paint its walls with angels and 
saints. Strange plants would be bought to be put into 
the garth, or garden, beside the church. Around this new 
cloisters, with twisted marble columns, would be built. 
These were covered walks where the monks would stroll 
or sit reading or teach their classes of boys. 

Imagine yourself wandering through the monastery 
of St. Gall in Switzerland. If it was really like the 
wonderful old map that is still preserved, you 
would have needed a day to visit it. It was 
almost a village, with more than thirty buildings. Such 
a great monastery was factory, farm, school, library, 
and church all combined. There were hundreds like 
it, greater or smaller, throughout Europe, and they did 
much during hundreds of years to civilize and educate 
the people. 

Saints and Pilgrimages 

Wonderful stories are told about the holiness of some 

of the Christians of the Middle Ages, especially of the 

monks. One of them used often to stay on 

°^ his knees all night praying and weeping over 

the sufferings of Christ. According to old 

stories many holy men and women had visions of angels 

or of Christ or of the Virgin Mary. Some holy men, the 

old books say, were able by their holiness to perform 

miracles, to cure sickness by touching the ill person with 

their hands, to heal a wound by a kiss, to put out a fire 

by prayer, to tame wild beasts by speaking to them, and 

to raise the dead to life. 

A beautiful story is told of Francis, a saintly man of 

. Italy. One day as he was going along a road, 

''he lifted up his eyes and beheld some trees 

hard by the road whereon sat a great company of birds 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 317 

well-nigh without number; whereat Saint Francis mar- 
veled, and said to his companions : ' Ye shall wait for me 
here upon the way and I will go to preach unto my little 
sisters, the birds.' And he went unto the field and began 
to preach unto the birds that were on the ground : and 
immediately those that were on the trees flew down to 
him." 

When Saint Francis preached to them, ''those birds 
began all of them to open their beaks, and stretch their 
necks, and spread their wings, and reverently bend their 
heads down to the ground, and by their acts and by their 
songs to show that the holy father gave them joy exceed- 
ing great. ... At the last, having ended the preaching. 
Saint Francis made over them the sign of the cross, and 
gave them leave to go away; and thereby all the birds 
with wondrous singing rose up in the air" and flew away 
in the shape of the cross that Saint Francis had made over 
them. 

While a holy man of this sort was alive, people almost 
adored him. They came from great distances to see him. 
They begged one of his shoes, his girdle, a piece of his robe, 
as a precious keepsake. There was a power in these 
things, they thought, to. work miracles. When a holy 
man with such power as this died, people did not cease 
to love him. They talked of his deeds. They sent to 
the pope the story of his holy life and of the miracles he 
had»done. Then the pope, after he had examined into 
his life and found it miraculous, declared him a saint 
and commanded all Christians to honor him. 

Hundreds of holy men and women were made saints 
and were revered in this way. Benedict was one ; Boni- 
face was another; and Francis, and King Louis; and 
many of the martyrs who had died for their religion in the 
Roman times ; and all the apostles of Christ. Then the 



3i8 THE NEWER NATIONS 

people, thinking of these saints in heaven and beheving 
that they looked down upon the world and loved it, 
prayed to them and asked them to intercede with God for 
their sakes. 

Even the dead body of such a man was "more valuable 
than precious stones and finer than refined gold." An 
old writer says, " Even though the soul is not 
present, a virtue resides in the body of the 
saints because of the righteous soul which has for so 
many years tenanted and used it." So people made a 
rich tomb all carved and even encrusted with gold, and 
they took up the body and placed it in that tomb. They 
built a church around it, and perhaps put an altar over 
the body or before it, and kept candles always burning 
there. And those bodies which before death had been 
able to perform miracles were still able, people thought, 
to do so after death. By touching the tomb or the chest 
that contained the bones or even by merely seeing the 
holy relics, people were cured of sorrow, sickness, and 
madness. 

Therefore men were eager to visit these shrines, 

taking their sorrows, their sins, and their sickness to be 

cured. Besides, the pope counted it a virtue 

Pi grim- £^j. ^ j^^^ to visit such holy places. He some- 
ages . . . 

times promised forgiveness of sins to those 

who with contrite hearts performed the journey, and 

priests often commanded some great sinner to make such 

a pilgrimage to this or that shrine, perhaps walking 

barefoot all the way, perhaps going on his knees for the 

last part of the journey. 

Travel was difficult and slow, but special privileges 

were given to pilgrims. They were allowed to travel the 

roads without paying toll as other travelers had to 

do. They went under the special protection of the 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



319 




?".r ' ,'°liy 




A Tomb 

The body is placed in the wall of the church behind the tombstone. There are 
scores of such tombs in many old churches. See cut on page 150 



church. Along the roads where they journeyed were 
houses for their needs, built by religious men and women. 
Many gilds opened their houses to them, and all the 
monasteries, of course, were eager to receive them in 



320 



THE NEWER NATIONS 



Christ's name. Moreover, most people w6re glad to 
entertain pilgrims in their homes, for the travelers brought 
news of strange lands ; and, besides, doing a kindness to 
pilgrims seemed like doing it to Christ or to the saint 
whose shrine they were going to visit. 

Pilgrims, therefore, made themselves known by wear- 
ing a certain costume — perhaps a long cape with a hood 

and a great hat looped up in 
front. They carried a staff in 
the hand and a little wallet at 
the belt for the money and food 
kind people gave them. So by 
the help of charity even poor 
people could make these pil- 
grimages, and the great shrines 
were visited by thousands from 
all corners of Europe. 

In one year more than two 
thousand pilgrims from England 
alone visited Compostella in 
Spain. Many of these had 
traveled through France on foot, 
begging for bed and bread as they went. Some did this 
from need, but others because they thought by this pov- 
erty and humility to please God. So people of fame and 
wealth sometimes walked and begged in the pilgrim cos- 
tume. Thus did Saint Louis, even though king of France. 
But others rode on horses or went by ship as far as they 
could and spent their money as they went, staying at inns 
when there were any, buying at the markets, and giving 
alms to the poor pilgrims. So where the great shrines 
were and the great crowds of pilgrims, there came to be 
great fairs and prosperous cities. Business hung to the 
skirts of religion. 




A Pilgrim 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



321 




A Great Noble Goes on a Pilgrimage 

The ship is too large to come to shore. It anchors and sends its boat. Notice 
the two masts, crow's nest, roofed cabin, and embroidered or painted sails 

But of all the holy places of the world, the most holy, 
of course, was Jerusalem, where Christ had piignm- 
lived and died. Men longed to see the Jordan ages to 
river, where he had been baptized, the garden Jerusalem 
of Gethsemane where he had suffered, the mount where 



322 THE NEWER NATIONS 

he had been crucified, the tomb where his body had been 
placed and from which he had risen to be their Savior. 
Even people who were not very religious were eager to 
go to Palestine. Priests thought it was a holy deed to 
make the long journey. So they promised forgiveness 
of sins to those who went. 

For the men of western Europe it was a journey of 
two or three thousand miles, and many months were 
needed to make it. But even so, people went by hundreds. 
Merchants left their business, knights left their castles, 
and women their children, to seek Palestine. Some of 
them went by land through Hungary to Constantinople, 
across the straits and down to the holy city. Others 
went in one way or another to some seaport of Italy — 
Venice, Genoa, Brindisi, Pisa. There they took ship and 
were carried along the Mediterranean to Jaffa or to Acre. 

Even in this easy way they had to spend a long tune. 
Saewulf, a merchant of England, who made the pilgrim- 
age in 1100, says that he was thirteen weeks voyaging 
from Italy to Jaffa. And then the journey was not at 
an end. "We went up from Jaffa," he says, ''to the 
city of Jerusalem, a journey of two days, by a mountain- 
ous road, very rough and dangerous on account of the 
Saracens, who lie in wait in the caves of the mountains 
to surprise the Christians." 

Mohammedanism, the New Religion in Asia 

Who were these Saracens who robbed the Christian 
pilgrims? The answer to this is a long story. Chris- 
Moham- tianity had begun in Palestine, a little land of 
med and Asia. Six hundred years after the birth of 
His Re- Christ another great religion was born, and 
^^°^ this also in Asia. Arabia was a country of dry 

deserts and rich oases and fertile coast lands, a country 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



323 



of camels and perfumes and jewels and gold mines. It 
was in this land that the new religion began, and Moham- 
med, an Arab, was the father of it. He had visions, he 
said, in which an angel appeared to him carrying silken 
scrolls written over with messages from God. These 
messages Mohammed at the angel's command read aloud 
and remembered. Then he recited them to his family 
and his neighbors and preached on the meaning of them. 
At first few people would listen. Indeed, Mohammed 
and his handful of followers were driven out of his own 
city of Mecca. But another town, Medina, received 
them, and many of its people were converted. 
From that time the new religion spread 
rapidly, so that before its prophet died, most of Arabia 
was Mohammedan. 

One reason for its rapid growth was that Mohammed 
had noble things to say. He saw men worshiping idols 
and believing in many gods. Against such beliefs he 
cried, ''Your God is one God. There is no God but Him 
the most merciful." Moreover, this God whom Mo- 
hammed preached was a God of love. ''By the bright- 
ness of the morning ; and by the night, when it groweth 
dark : thy Lord hath not forsaken thee, neither doth He 
hate thee. Verily the life to come shall be better for thee 
than this present life : and thy Lord shall give thee a 
reward wherewith thou shalt be well pleased. Did He 
not find thee an orphan, and hath He not taken care of 
thee ? And did He not find thee wandering in error and 
hath He not guided thee into the truth ? And did He not 
find thee needy, and hath He not enriched thee ? Where- 
fore oppress not the orphan, neither repulse the beggar : 
but declare the goodness of the Lord." 

People who accepted the new religion were to live good 
lives. "Whatsoever good ye do, God knoweth it," says 



324 THE NEWER NATIONS 

the Koran, the holy book of the Mohammedans, made up 
of the messages that the angel delivered to Mohammed. 
In another place it says, '*A fair speech and to forgive 
is better than alms followed by mischief." "Deal not 
unjustly with others, and ye shall not be dealt with 
unjustly." 

But Mohammed did not preach peace as Christ had 
done, but rather he preached war against the infidels, 
for so he called all people not Mohammedans. He 
wanted to convert all the world to his religion, just as 
the Christians wanted to do. But his way was to send 
out, not peaceful missionaries to teach and to preach, but 
armies to slay and conquer and frighten men into becom- 
ing Mohammedans. He said: ''The sword is the key 
of heaven and of hell ; a drop of blood shed in the cause of 
God, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two 
months of fasting or prayer. Whosoever falls in battle, 
his sins are forgiven ; at the day of judgment his wounds 
shall be resplendent as vermilion, and odoriferous as 
musk ; and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the 
wings of angels and cherubim." 

The heaven to which the faithful will go, is thus de- 
scribed in the Koran: ''They shall dwell in gardens of 
delight, . . . reposing on couches adorned with gold and 
precious stones, sitting opposite to one another thereon. 
Youths which shall continue in their bloom forever, 
shall go round about to attend them, with goblets and 
beakers and a cup of flowing wine. . . . And there shall 
accompany them fair damsels having large black eyes. . . . 
And [they] shall have their abode among lote trees free 
from thorns . . . under an extended shade, near a flowing 
water and amidst fruits in abundance, which shall not 
fail nor shall be forbidden to be gathered, and they shall 
repose themselves on lofty beds." 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 325 

With such a promise as that, is it any wonder that 
Mohammed's followers were eager to fight The Mo- 
and that they fought against any odds as hamme- 
though their lives were worthless ? The Arabs ^^ °" 

. . . quer a 

were a warlike race and loved fighting for its Great 
own sake. So now they set out to conquer Empire 
and convert the world. 

Their neighbors to the north belonged to what was 
left of the Roman empire. In the West the empire was 
gone, and the Germans were growing up on its old land. 
But in the East the throne of Constantine yet stood. He 
had moved the capital of the empire from Rome and had 
built a splendid city at the old Greek town of Byzantium, 
calHng it, after himself, Constantinople.^ In Mohammedan 
times this Constantinople was still rich and beautiful — 
her harbor full of ships, her streets busy with traders, her 
court gay with fine lords and ladies, her libraries filled 
with learned books and learned men, her generals in 
command of great armies. She still owned Greece and 
the country north of it, almost to the Danube, and, 
besides that, Asia Minor and Palestine and Egypt and 
some of the northern shore of Africa. In fact the eastern 
Mediterranean and its lands were hers.^ So when the 
Arabs began to press outward, they soon met the armies 
of this eastern Christian empire. 

But those Mohammedans were a new kind of fighters. 
They were burning with enthusiasm. They were lean 
and wiry and quick as lizards. They were afraid of noth- 
ing and never dreamed of giving up. They fought on 
horseback and could wheel their flying steeds as quickly 
as a man could turn. They rode into battle on the run, 
shouting shrilly their war-cry, ''God is God, and Mo- 
hammed is his prophet." 

^ See page 145. * See map on page 149. 



326 THE NEWER NATIONS 

Before this rush of enthusiasm and courage the East- 
ern empire was not able to hold its outlying provinces. 
Twelve years after Mohammed's death his followers 
possessed not only their own Arabia, but Persia, Syria, 
Palestine, and Egypt. Inside of seventy years they had 
all northern Africa and were looking across the Strait of 
Gibraltar at Spain. So far their conquests had been in 
Asia and Africa. It would be more serious if an Asiatic 
people and an Asiatic religion should step into Europe. 
Yet so it happened. In 711 the Saracens, as Europeans 
called them, crossed over. 

The Spaniards whom they met were descendants of 
those Goths who had followed Adolf over into Spain after 
Alaric's death. ^ They had become enthusiastic Chris- 
tians. The nobles were rich, owning thousands of acres 
of land and hundreds of slaves. They were disloyal to 
their king and disunited among themselves. They had 
lost the strength and courage of their ancestors. Twelve 
thousand Saracens from Africa, under a brave leader, 
Tarik, met a Spanish army four or five times as large and 
conquered it. The Gothic hosts — killed, captured, and 
fleeing — melted away. One city after another opened 
its gates to the Saracen leaders, so that within two or 
three years after Tarik' s landing, almost all of Spain 
belonged to the strangers. 

So here were the Saracens with an empire more than 
five thousand miles long, stretching from India to the 
most western tip of Europe. And no man could tell 
where Mohammedan rule would stop. Its warriors were 
brave and active, its cities were growing richer, its people 
prouder. Now, all this had happened before any great 
nations had grown up in Europe. The European people 
were so busy with their own affairs, they traveled so 

^ See page 148. 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



327 



little and were so ignorant of anything beyond their own 
eyesight, that they hardly knew of this great Moham- 
medan empire in the East and South that had grown so 
magically and that threatened to keep on growing. 




A Vista in a Saracen Palace 
The Alhambra in Spain 

Meanwhile the Saracen people had prospered in body 
and soul. The upper class, men and women alike, 
dressed in gorgeous silk robes that hung from 
neck to toe, and they wore bracelets and neck- ^o^*™- 
laces of gold, set with bright gems. The palaces Ljfg 
of the wealthy were great rambling buildings 
with flat roofs and tall, slender towers. The open courts 
were planted with palms and orange trees and brilliant 
flowers and were cooled with spraying fountains or with 
still pools of water. Upon those airy courts opened rich 



328 THE NEWER NATIONS 

rooms with delicate columns and arches covered with 
colored plaster all traced over with finely woven lines 
in lovely patterns. There were soft, glowing carpets on 
the floors of mosaic marble, there were deep cushions for 
lounging, and fountains of perfume playing to scent the 
air. 

With all these riches went learning also. Arabia and 
Moorish Spain were much more civilized and learned 
than were the England of King John or the 
Moham- France of Saint Louis or the Germany of 
Learning Frederick II, five hundred years later. In- 
deed, it was from the Moors of Spain and of 
Sicily that Frederick II got much of that great learning 
which made him the wonder of the world. ^ The large 
Saracen cities had libraries, observatories, hospitals. The 
Spanish Moors had universities long before the rest of 
Europe, and men who were eager to become really trained in 
medicine or astronomy or mathematics or chemistry went, 
not to some Christian city to study, but down into Spain, 
to Mohammedan Toledo, Cordova, Seville, or Granada. 

Even to-day we use Arabic words for ideas, inventions, 
and products which our ancestors learned from the 
Arabs — algebra, alcohol, almanac, damask, muslin, 
sugar, cotton. The first of these words shows the Arabs as 
great mathematicians ; the second proves them chemists ; 
the third, astronomers ; the fourth and fifth, fine weavers ; 
the last two, good farmers. It was the Moors who 
brought into Spain, and so into all Europe, certain prod- 
ucts of their warmer climates that seem now like our 
own — rice, sugar cane, cotton, apricots, peaches, yellow 
roses, tulips. 

These Saracens were traders and merchants, too. They 
traded "by vessels or caravans with China, from which 

^See page 169, 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 329 

they obtained silk, tea, lac, and china; with Calcutta 
and Sumatra, whence they brought spices, drugs, pearls, 
and precious stones ; with [the remoter parts of] Africa, 
which supplied them with slaves, ivory, and gold dust ; 
with the country at the north of the Black Sea, which 
furnished furs and amber." 

The Crusades 

It was such people as these who had won holy Jeru- 
salem from the Christians and had taken several provinces 
away from the Eastern empire. Religious men of western 
Europe regretted most the fact that "infidels" should 
hold the city of Christ and collect a tax from pilgrims at 
its gates. Merchants regretted, also, that the Saracens 
had possession of the great ports where the Christian ships 
went to trade for the wonderful goods of the East. Chris- 
tian knights heard tales of the bravery and courtesy and 
skill of the gentlemen warriors of Arabia and longed to 
measure swords with them. 

The emperor at Constantinople and the other rulers of 
Europe began to fear lest the Mohammedans should 
cross the narrow straits between Asia and Europe or pass 
over the mountains that cut off Spain from France and 
conquer all Europe and crush out Christianity. Soon 
the emperor at Constantinople saw the Turks, a new 
Mohammedan tribe, more fierce and less cultured than 
the Arabs, capturing his lands and facing him across the 
straits. Then in 1095 he called to the pope at Rome 
to help him in keeping the 'infidels" out of Europe. The 
pope's answer was to preach a fiery sermon at a council 
of churchmen and nobles, urging them to rescue the holy 
sepulcher from the ''infidels." 

After this burning sermon the people shouted, ''It is 
the will of God!" and begged for the privilege to go. 



330 THE NEWER NATIONS 

Crosses were quickly cut from red cloth, men sewed them 
to their cloaks as a sign that they had entered 

® V^^* upon a holy war — a war of the cross. The 
pope gave his blessing and a promise of sins 
forgiven, and a few months later a great army started 
out across eastern Europe toward Jerusalem. 

Terrible sufferings and danger beset it. Many died or 
were captured and sold into slavery or became ill from 
hunger and weariness and had to drop behind. Yet at 
last many of the knights and foot-soldiers — perhaps a 
hundred thousand of them — did arrive in Asia. There 
were fierce battles with the Mohammedans and long sieges 
of Mohammedan cities, deaths from honorable wounds 
received in fights and less glorious deaths from starvation 
and sickness brought on by the strange climate. 

After many trials, however, at last the Christian army, 

in 1099, did rescue Jerusalem from the Mohammedans. 

Moreover, it conquered a narrow strip for 500 

Capture o j^[\q^ along the coast of Palestine and Syria 

Jerusalem ,-..,,.. , ., 

and divided it into four states, with one or an- 
other of the crusaders for ruler, and the Christian knights 
for garrisons. For about eighty years there were Chris- 
tian ''kings of Jerusalem" ruling the land that King David 
had once ruled. Here, on the edge of a strange world, 
these knights of western Europe lived their lives much as 
they had lived them at home — building castles, holding 
tournaments, quarreling among themselves, fighting their 
enemies, ruling their vassals, training their squires to 
become knights, listening to troubadour songs. Many 
pilgrims came and went, — common people and princes. 
Yet, in spite of courage and strength, a little gar- 
rison of foreigners could not hold this strip of Holy 
Land from the warlike hosts that were seething about 
it. The kingdom was lost and won and lost again. There 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



331 



was almost constant war. During two hundred years six 
European kings and scores of great dukes led crusading 
armies to the East to try to hold the land or regain 
it for the Christians : yet the crusades were unsuccess- 
ful. They did not permanently rescue the sepulcher of 




Jerusalem 
Much like any European city except that the temple is at the heart of it 

Christ ; they did not push the Mohammedans back and 
keep them out of Europe. Before the two 
hundred years were quite passed the little J^^ ^°" 

r^, . . , . 1 . Tr» 1 i- 1 o • 1 1 hammedan 

Christian kingdoms m Palestine and Syria had victory 
vanished, and the Mohammedans had won back 
every foot of land. Then came the turn of eastern 
Europe. The Turks crossed over from Asia Minor and 
at last, in 1453, captured Constantinople and thus put an 
end to the Roman empire of the East. Old Christian 



332 THE NEWER NATIONS 

Constantinople is to-day the capital of Mohammedan 
Turkey. 

In another way, however, the crusades accompHshed 
much. The knights of Europe found Mohammedan 
cavahers quite as reUgious and as courteous and 
Results g^g bpaye as themselves. And they found cities 
Crusades cleaner and pleasanter than their own, with 
paved streets and flowing water. They saw 
houses filled with beautiful rugs and cushions, and sweet 
with perfume and sparkling fountains and furnished with 
baths. They saw strange plants and animals and new 
kinds of agriculture ; they saw richness of clothing and 
jewelry that they had only dreamed of. 

Hundreds of thousands of common men took the cross, 
followed the princes and nobles upon these holy wars, 
and saw the wonderful life of the East. Some of them 
went back home again, carrying curios with them, and 
telling marvelous tales about their travels. Every 
minstrel in Europe tuned his lyre and sang the glorious 
tale of this or that crusader. In these ways men became 
acquainted with a different world, with different ways of 
building, of eating, of dressing, of talking, of worshiping, 
of thinking, and their minds had to grow to fit this new 
knowledge. 

Moreover, merchants and crusaders went hand in hand, 
and though the crusaders returned home, the merchants 
remained and shipped new goods from the East back to 
Europe. Beside the religious pilgrimages grew up a 
habit of travel, a curiosity to see the world, a desire to 
know new peoples. All that great traveling across land 
and sea and that exchanging of goods between Asia and 
Europe, all that commerce of the Hanse towns and the 
cities of Italy which is told of in the chapter before this, 
was growing up during the time of the crusades. While 



RELIGION IN THE MIDDLE AGES 333 

King Richard of England was fighting the "infidels" 
before Jerusalem, the Venetian merchants were living at 
Acre, near by, and were trading in friendly way with 
Mohammedan caravans. And that commerce, that love 
of travel, that exploring spirit, lived on after the crusades 
had died out. 



1. Read " Friar Jerome's Beautiful Book," a poem by T. B. Aldrich, 
the story of the making of an old manuscript book. Draw some of 
the designs and letters that you think Friar Jerome made. 2. Choose 
some beautiful poem or inspiring sentence and print it, using a brush 
and India ink on parchment paper. Make the initial letters bright and 
lovely. It will be a good Christmas card. 3. For a few days keep a 
chronicle of interesting things that happen in classes or on the play- 
ground. What could people of 2400 a.d. learn about the Ufe of our 
day from reading your chronicle ? 4. What monks came to America 
in the early days as missionaries? Did they do anything besides 
preach ? 5. Find out about the Trappist monks in America to-day. 
6. What are the Cahfomia missions, and who built them? 7. Moham- 
medans date events from the year when Mohammed fled from Mecca, 
and they call the flight the Hejira. That was in 622 a.d. They 
would say that Charlemagne was crowned 178 years after the Hejira. 
What number do they give the present year ? 8. What peoples to-day 
are Mohammedans? 



PART III 
BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

CHAPTER XIII 
GREAT CHANGES 

Our modern world is very different from the medieval 
world. In those earlier times the great lived in stone 
castles, and the poor were bound to the soil. Only a few 
men owned land, and most men served some other with 
plow or sword in payment for the use of a piece of ground. 
Then books were rare, and the few who could read them 
were churchmen. Practically all the people of western 
Europe were members of one church and were obedient 
to priest and pope. 

Yet things never stand still, and before the year 1600 
many great changes had come about. The invention of 
gunpowder had changed the style of buildings for the 
great : smiling palaces were taking the place of grim 
castles.^ Professional soldiers with strange firearms had 
taken the place of steel-clad knights. Most of the serfs 
were free : they had bought their freedom or had snatched 
it by running away from their lords.^ The manors had 
begun to change : many free workers had come to rent 
or own little farms. 

National States 

In many of the countries of western Europe the kings 
had humbled their great nobles, as Saint Louis had done.^ 

1 See pages 247-248. * See pages 258 and 263. » See pages 176-178. 

334 



GREAT CHANGES 



335 



In the early Middle Ages men had thought of themselves 
not so much as Enghshmen or Frenchmen, but as 
vassals of this count or that duke. As the 
king's power increased, however, men came to Growth of 
think less about whose vassals they were, and Kingly 
more and more of the monarch who was strong ^^^^'^ 
enough to protect Hfe and property. The kings gained 
authority over the towns, often by helping them against 
the greed of their lords. 
As the king grew stronger 
the great nobles were less 
and less able to defy him. 
Often, too, the king's 
need of money or of 
support against the lords 
led him to ask the aid of 
the richer common men. 
Then parliaments began 
at last to grow, — great 
assemblies where the king 
presided and where men 
from all corners of his 
realm met to discuss 
affairs and to make laws.^ 
Then all men's eyes and 
hearts began to turn 
toward a common center, 
and in France, England, 
Spain, and Portugal men 
began to say: "We are Frenchmen," ''We are English- 
men," "We are Spaniards," "We are Portuguese." 

The king of such a country, when he was a wise king, 
felt that the interest of his subjects was his interest. If 




Soldier with an Early Form of 
Firearm 

Notice that he wears no steel armor 



1 See pages 186-187. 



336 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

his merchants were prosperous, he was prosperous. There- 
fore he exerted himself to help them, and being much 
The Nation stronger than an old feudal king, he could 
Regulates aid them better. If Englishmen needed per- 
Trade and rnission to trade in a French port or a Russian 
^^^^ port, the English king would send an ambassador 
to the king of France or to the czar of Russia to obtain 
such a permission. Kings came, moreover, to consider it 
their business to make laws regulating manufacture and 
agriculture and the hiring of laborers. They found the 
old gilds selfish and narrow.^ Trade and industry, more- 
over, had grown too broad for gilds and towns to manage. 
Therefore the kings altered the old rules and made new 
national laws. Under Queen Elizabeth, England, for ex- 
ample, set the laborer's day at twelve hours in summer, 
gave justices of the peace the power to fix the legal wages, 
and regulated contracts between employers and laborers. 
Gilds were now no longer needed in the old way, and they 
broke up or served merely to carry out national laws. 
The national government had an eye to the welfare of the 
laborer, of the farmer, of the merchant. 

How the World Began to Read 

Another great change was in education. Common 
men in great numbers began to read. This happened as 

. . the result of what must at first have seemed like 

an unimportant invention. Between the years 
1445 and 1454 men in Holland and Germany were casting 
individual letters in metal. By putting these letters 
together into words and spreading ink over them and 
pressing paper upon them they could print a page. And 
the great point was that when a man had the type set up 
he could in a few minutes make many copies of the matter. 

1 See page 294. 



GREAT CHANGES 



337 



Therefore a hundred books could be printed almost as 
quickly as one and almost as cheaply. 

You remember how slow a task it had been before this 
time for a monk to copy 
a manuscript/ and how 
costly, therefore, books 
had been. With the 
movable types and the 
printing press, however, 
it was made possible for 
even poor men to buy 
books. By 1490 printing 
presses were busy in 
almost two hundred cities 
in western Europe, from 
Sweden to Sicily and 
from Constantinople to 
Portugal. Common 
people began to learn 
what the great minds of 
the past had thought and 
what the scholars of their 
own time were talking 
about. Sailors could buy books of travel, students could 
get writings on astronomy and medicine and law, and many 
people had copies of the Bible. The world began to read. 

A Change in Religion 

A great change occurred, too, in rehgion. Many 
people began to question whether the church -jhe 
was perfect. ''The priests and the monks," Protestant 
they said, "do not Hve holy lives. Many Revolt 
of them are wicked men, greedy and pleasure-loving." 

iSee pages 310-311. 




A Printing Office of the Six- 
teenth Century 

In the background men are setting type 

by hand. Those in front are working 

at the press 



338 



BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 



People had been carefully reading their newly printed 
Bibles, and they began to criticise the beliefs and cere- 
monies of the church. "The church does many things 
not taught in the Bible," they said. "It is too rich, 
too pompous. The ceremonies of the mass are wrong. 
Pilgrimages, too are mistaken. The priests encour- 
age men to buy 
pardons to save 
their dead friends 
from suffering for 
their sins. This, 
too, is wrong. The 
church needs re- 
forming." Martin 
Luther in Ger- 
many and John 
Calvin in France 
and Switzerland 
were the leaders 
of this revolt, 
which soon went 
to the length of 
rejecting alto- 
gether the author- 
ity of the pope. 
If the revolt suc- 
ceeded, the uni- 
versal sway of the old medieval church would be broken. 
But most people remained loyal to the church, and they 
declared that some of the charges were exaggerated or 
wholly untrue, and that the reformers did not understand 
the true meaning of the Bible. " And even if there are 
things wrong with the church," said the loyal Catholics, 
"it would be wicked and sinful to try to destroy its 




AIartin Luther as a Monk 



GREAT CHANGES 339 

ancient unity and authority instead of gradually working 
to make things better." 

There were debates between scholars on church ques- 
tions. The pope and the emperor held meetings to discuss 
church matters. Books, both earnest and scornful, were 
written on both sides. Men grew more and more bitter, 
and wars arose out of the trouble. Most of the people 
of southern Europe remained faithful to the church : 
Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, southern Germany, con- 
tinued Catholic and are so to-day. Most of the people 
of northern Europe left the old church and established 
new ones with slightly changed ceremonies and creeds. 
There were the Lutheran and Calvinist churches in north- 
ern Germany, Holland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark ; 
the Episcopalian, in England ; the Presbyterian, in Scot- 
land. These are still Protestant countries. 

But the struggle went on. Every church, new or old, 
was so certain of being in the right that it had no patience 
or sympathy with those of another faith. Catholic and 
Protestant alike condemned liberty of thought and be- 
Hef and cruelly persecuted each other when they could. 
It was an age of intolerance. 

To the Catholic church the new creeds seemed utterly 
wrong, and she called them heresies. She fought them 
with two strong weapons. One was the Society 
of Jesus, an order of priests somewhat like the a^^^the 
old monkish orders. By learning, by eloquent inqtxisition 
preaching and writing, these devoted CathoUcs 
sought to keep the world CathoHc. The other great 
weapon was the Inquisition. This was a body of church- 
men whose business it was to root out heresy. They had 
the right to arrest men, women, and children who were 
accused of being heretics. They tried these prisoners, 
and if a man was found guilty, he was punished. Per- 



340 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

haps he was only scourged. Perhaps he was sent to the 
galleys, where he sat chained to the bench and helped 
to row the great ship. Perhaps he was imprisoned for 
life. Perhaps, even, he was burned at the stake. During 
the eighteen years of one Spanish judge's work, more than 
two thousand people of Spain were burned as heretics. 

But not only did Catholics try to root out heresy, 
they saw the need of correcting things that were wrong 
^, and of stating clearly the teachings of the 

Catholic church. Several councils of bishops and great 
Reforma- churchmen were held to clear up disputed 
*^°° points, to write out fully the Catholic creed, to 

make rules for the actions of bishops and priests and 
monks. Seminaries were established for the teaching of 
priests. The Jesuits encouraged learning and good habits 
among churchmen. The Catholic church of to-day has 
grown from that reformation on the inside, and the 
various Protestant churches are the result of the refor- 
mation on the outside. 

Thus by inventions and education, by the changing 
of manors and gilds, by the curbing of nobles and towns 
and the uniting of people under strong governments, by 
the breaking up of the powerful church and the formation 
of new creeds, Europe was becoming different from the 
Europe of the Middle Ages; it was becoming modern 
Europe. 

1. Suppose all the printing presses were destroyed to-night; what 
difference would it make in our world? 2. Visit a newspaper printing 
office. How is the type set? Find out how the early type was set. 
How is the press run? Find out how the early presses were run. 
3. From an almanac find out how many religious sects there are in the 
United States. 4. French Jesuits went as missionaries to Canada. Find 
out the names of some of them and learn about their work. One book 
that will help you is James Baldwin's Discovery of the Old Northwest. 




A Map of the World Made in Alexandria ^ about 150 a.d. 

CHAPTER XIV 

SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 

Changes in religion and education and government 
were all very important in creating our modern world, 
but a change more full of story and adventure and quite 
as important had to do with men's knowledge of geog- 
raphy. To the people of Europe in 1422 the known 
world was not much larger than it had been to the Greeks. 
To the Mediterranean countries they had added only 
northern Europe and a vague knowledge of India and 
China and Japan. In 1522, a hundred years later, a 
ship had sailed all the way around the world and so had 
demonstrated that the earth is a sphere ; a sailing route 
around Africa had been discovered ; and men had found 
the hitherto unknown Americas. 

Early Sailors and Their Ways 

Sailing the sea is a fairly simple matter if one keeps 
close to shore and sails over well-known routes. The 
pilot watches the color of the water and the breaking of 

1 See page 69. 
341 



342 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

waves for hidden reefs. He sights some object on land 
and guides his course by it. He judges his speed by not- 
ing how long it takes him to go from this well-known cape 
to that familiar town. When a storm threatens, he makes 
for a harbor that he knows. Such was the sailing in the 
Mediterranean in the time of the Greeks and Romans, 
and such the sailing of the early merchants of Florence 
and Venice and Genoa. 

During the hundreds of years of voyaging over this 
inland sea, however, sailors invented some very useful 
aids. Some man — some Arab or Chinaman perhaps : 
we do not know who he was, or where he lived, or when 
— found that if he rubbed a needle with a magnet and 
floated it on a straw in a dish of water, it would faith- 
fully point north. If a pilot was out of sight of land on a 
cloudy night, without sun or moon or stars to show him 
direction, this little needle helped him to keep 
m n^t°^^" ^ straight course. So it rapidly grew in im- 
I Compass po^'tance. Improvements were made in it, 
Italian traders in Asia carried the invention 
to the West, and by 1300 every Mediterranean ship had 
a compass, a neat little box with its bottom marked off 
with the directions, and with a magnetized needle swing- 
ing inside it. 

But though a compass might help a pilot to steer a 
straight course, it could not tell him in what direction 
to go in order to find a port which he had never seen. 
Captains, therefore, were glad to have in their crews men 
who had sailed in different parts of the Mediterranean, 
that they might serve as pilots. Yet such men were not 
always to be found. So there grew up the custom of writ- 
ing out sailing directions and selling them to ships' captains. 

They might read somewhat like this, perhaps : "From 
Naples sail south, past the burning island of Stromboli. 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 



343 



Sixty-three leagues ^ will bring you to the strait between 
Sicily and Italy. Here the ship is in much danger from 
the swift tide, which piles up the water in the 
narrow strait. After rounding the point of !:. ^^!*°^ 

IP 111 Directions 

Italy lay your course eastward for one hundred 
leagues, until you sight the Greek island of Zante, where 
many grapes 
are grown. 
From here 
sail south- 
ward, keeping 
the shore in 
sight and 
passing to the 
left of the is- 
land of Stri- 
vali, where 
the monas- 
tery is. After 
turning east 
around Cape 
Gallo, hug the 
rhore in order 
to avoid the 
winds blow- 
ing from the 
north. But as 
you approach 
Cape Malia 

make a wide sweep to the southward ; for this is a most 
dangerous point, on account of wind and hidden rocks." 

Gradually, instead of writing such directions, men of 
much travel came to make drawings of the coasts they 

1 The league as here used is the modern English league of three miles. 




A Sailor's Map of Europe and Africa, Made 
IN 1351 

Compare the shape of Africa with that in the map on 

page 341. Yet this is probably only a guess. Notice 

how much better the Mediterranean is drawn : this part 

the sailors knew well 



344 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

knew. At last captains could buy charts showing the 
shores of the whole Mediterranean as experienced sailors 
had seen them. Think what it means for a man to be 
able to make such a map. No one person, of course, had 
sailed along all the thousands of miles of the 
Mediterranean coast and explored all the harbors. 
One had gone up and down the west shore of Italy until 
he knew it well, had measured its distances and noted 
its directions. Another had done the Uke on the east 
coast, another among the Greek islands, yet another had 
often run the course from Sicily to Egypt. Every one 
of them, perhaps, could map his own little piece of coast ; 
but in order to put all these together, to know how far 
apart to draw the two shores of Italy, to know whether 
Athens was directly east of Rome or somewhat to the 
south of it — how could any seaman know these things ? 

The maker of a map that showed a great stretch of 
coast, with correct directions and distances, had to be 
able to find out, when he stood in a certain spot, where 
he was in relation to some other place, whether north, 
south, east, or west, and how far in that direction. To 
help them in doing this the scientists of the Middle Ages 
had invented an instrument called the astrolabe. They 
could point it at the north star and at the horizon, and 
thereby find out how far above the horizon the star was. 
This told them how far north of the equator they stood. 

In drawing their maps they used the plan of lines and 
cross lines that the geographers of Alexandria had in- 
vented.^ They imagined lines on the earth running from 
the north pole to the south pole, and other lines running 
around the earth from east to west and cutting it into 
spaces much as the lines of longitude and latitude do on our 
maps to-day. 

1 See pages 48 and 69. 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 345 

Besides having the compass to direct them, maps to 
guide them, and the astrolabe to show them their loca- 
tion, Mediterranean sailors had improved their 
ships. These were larger than those of Greek 
days and carried three masts instead of one. Each sail 
was divided, so that parts of it could be reefed in a heavy 




A Portuguese Ship 

wind and yet other parts remain spread. There were 
jibs flying over the bow to catch the wind. With all this 
spread of sail, a ship went very fast. 

A German monk who made a pilgrimage to the Holy 
Land in 1480 wrote a book about his travels. In it he 
says: "In storms, when the wind is fair and strong, a 
ship runs violently and with uneasy tossing on its course 



346 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

with exceeding great swiftness, so fast that an arrow from 
a catapult or a bow cannot equal the pace of the ship. . . . 
The wind draws the ship along by its sails with such 
force that the sea water seems to run to meet the prow, 
and the beak of the prow seems to be plowing furiously 
up against the stream of a river so that sometimes the 
water rises above the horns of the prow." 

Wanted: A New Route to India 

Yet, in spite of better ships and aids to navigation, 
Mediterranean sailors had not ventured out into the 
Atlantic. A few of them, to be sure, skirted the coast 
on a yearly trip to England and Flanders,^ but most of 
them were content to sail up and down the familiar sea. 
There had been little need to go elsewhere. Ships sailed 
in order to carry goods, and the things that people wanted 
had been waiting for them in the ports of Egypt and 
Asia Minor and Syria. 

But something had happened to change all this, so 
that the European traders of the fifteenth century began 
Changes *^ ^^^ little in their old markets at Constan- 
in the tinople, Smyrna, and the other cities of Asia 

East Minor. Western Asia had long been disturbed. 

About 1200, Mongol tribes under great rulers and fighters, 
after conquering China, had moved westward, had seized 
practically all of Asia, and had pushed into Europe, con- 
quering and holding much of Russia. A little later the 
Ottoman Turks began to move out southward and east- 
ward from the northwest corner of Asia Minor. It was 
through this country, so often raided and conquered by 
people who were in race, religion, and habits unlike the 
Europeans, that the caravans went from the East to the 

I See page 291. 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 



347 



West. Merchants became afraid to risk their goods in 
this fierce war zone. Fewer and fewer caravans came 
from India and China. Trading ships lay idle, and trade 
dwindled.^ 

Yet men knew that far off, beyond that hostile Turkish 
land, lay rich China and India and the Spice Islands. 
People began to read with more eager- 
ness than ever before the old book of 
the travels of Marco Polo. 

This fortunate boy and his two 
uncles had traveled, sometimes on ship, 
sometimes on camel back, and by 
horse, and afoot, from their j^^rco 
own city of Venice, through Poio's 
the well-known Mediterran- Travels, 
ean, through the old lands of "71-1295 
Asia that Alexander had conquered, 
past ruins of ancient cities, across 
deserts, among fierce tribes, over 
mountain passes, down great river 
valleys, to the farthest coast of China, 
a journey of more than a thousand From the first edition 
days. °^ ^^^ ^°°^ 

Here they had lived for seventeen years, in the court 
of the emperor Kublai Khan, acting as his messengers 
and advisers. They went with the emperor from his 
summer palace to his winter palace. They traveled into 
far corners of the country on the emperor's business. 
They saw the great land of China from end to end and 
Chinese life from top .to bottom. And always Marco's 
eyes were open to everything interesting and important. 




Marco Polo 



' Though some trade still flowed through Syria and Egypt, Damascus and 
Jaffa and Alexandria, still it was plain that these, too, must come under the 
yoke of the Turk, as indeed they did early in the sixteenth century. 



348 



BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 



When at last he returned to Italy and told his story, 
a friend, hearing it, wrote it down in a book. That book 
was so full of marvels that when it was finally published, 
all who could, put hands upon a copy and read and went 




,u*<>^-^(/-it 



The Polos Begin Their Journey 



away with excited eyes, telhng it again to whoever would 
hsten. Men told over and over of the Grand Khan's 
palace and its gilt columns entwined with carved dragons ; 
of the sacred herd of ten thousand milk-white horses ; of 
the level roads with their flying horsemen and fleet run- 
ners that could make a ten days' journey in one ; of the 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 



349 




KuBLAi Khan 

A Chinese picture 



great Kiang River, ten miles wide in some places ; of the 
river town where fifteen thousand boats were tied up ; of 
that marvelous Celestial City, a hundred miles around, 
with twelve thousand bridges 
across its rivers and canals, 
with its stone-paved streets, 
by means of which ''passen- 
gers can travel to every part 
without soiling their feet"; 
of the island of Java, where 
grew * ' pepper, nutmegs, spike- 
nard, galangal,*cubebs, cloves, 
and all the other valuable 
spices and drugs." 

The Polos had gone home 
by ship through the China 
Sea, past the Spice Islands, past Ceylon and the Indian 
coast, through the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, 
without being troubled by the Turks. "If only we might 
get our ships into those waters!" thought the traders 
who read Polo's book. ''Now that the Turks have shut 
the gates of land travel to Asia, it would be good to find 
some sea route from our Mediterranean into those eastern 
seas. If we could only sail around Africa, we might come 
into the Indian Ocean." One man in the fifteenth cen- 
tury accomplished a wonderful work that made such a 
voyage possible. He was a prince of the little country of 
Portugal. 

Portugal's Great Explorers 

This country was on the western edge of the world, 
looking out over the terrible, the unguessed Atlantic. 
Men standing on her cliffs and gazing westward must 
have felt a thrill of terror. They could see nothing 



350 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

beyond but endless waters. What lay out there under 
the sunset? Ignorant men thought: ''Of course the 

ocean stretches as far as eye can see, but it must 
^^ ° have an end. It is probably cut off suddenly, 

and a ship would slip over its edge into — what? 
Besides, do you see how a ship keeps dropping down as 
it sails out in that direction? First the hull disappears, 
then the sail, then the flag on the mast. It is going down- 
hill toward that awful jumping-off place." 

And toward the south, what was there? These same 
ignorant men thought that a few hundred miles south of 
the Mediterranean the earth became so hot that the air 
was aflame and the sea steaming. For as one journeyed 
into Africa, did not the climate grow hotter and hotter, 
and was not the ground parched so that no plants could 
grow, and were not the people scorched brown? Men 
believed, too, that a magnet mountain lay somewhere 
in that far-off sea. Acting upon the iron of the ships it 
would draw them toward it, would pull out the nails 
that held them together and strew the timbers of the 
wrecks over the waves. Monsters, moreover, lived on 
the land, men thought, death-dealing creatures and man- 
eaters. 

Yet there were educated men who knew that these 
were foohsh superstitions, who had learned from the 
writings of the old Greek philosophers that the earth is a 
sphere and that the ocean laps it round like a blanket. 
Prince Henry of Portugal was one of these learned men. 
He knew much about the shape of the earth and wished 
to learn more. He was a scientist and mathematician, 
liking to figure out problems in astronomy and surveying. 
He was a great reader, too, and had read Herodotus and 
Marco Polo's book and Ptolemy's "Geography," written 
ages before in learned Alexandria. He had, besides, a 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 351 

great deal of money, so that he could buy maps and make 
experiments quite impossible for poorer men. 

So he chose a home for himself on the very southwestern 
point of Portugal where the Atlantic tides and the sea 
winds swept in. Here he built a palace where 
he could live, an observatory where he could Prince 
study the stars, a dock where he could have ships Henry's 
built. He encouraged all men of learning and 
all sailors who had had interesting voyages to visit him 
and to tell him their stories. 

For centuries ships had gone along the desert coast of 
northwestern Africa for seven hundred miles or more, 
stopping here and there to trade with the Moorish in- 
habitants for gold and ivory and curious things. But at 
a certain cape that stretched outward into the strange 
west, beaten by great waves, the ships had always turned 
back. Men had named the point Cape Non or Cape 
Not, because for the ship that sailed past it there was not 
any return. 

To pass this impassable cape, to push exploration as 
far as possible down the African coast became the dream 
and the purpose of Prince Henry's life. He sat in his 
observatory and studied the stars, in his library and 
pored over his maps, all telling different things about the 
unknown parts of the world. He bad ships built, he hired 
sailors, he offered prizes to captains who should find new 
lands. He sketched maps for them, wrote sailing direc- 
tions. He conunanded his captains at any risk to sail 
beyond Cape Non. He laughed at the foolish 
belief in the sea of darkness and the magnet ^^® 
mountain and the flaming air. At last he en- ^oast 
ticed one ship past the cape. And since, as the 
old Portuguese chronicler says, ''the beginning is two 
parts of the whole matter," soon others followed and 




Henry the Navigator 

On the shelves notice his books, astrolabe, compass, sundial, drawing instru- 
ments, and globe — the tools of the explorer. But he was also knight and 
crusader: note his armor and the garter about his knee. That is the badge of 
an English order of knighthood. In the upper right-hand corner is the seal of 
that order with its French motto, "Evil to him who evil thinks." At the 
bottom of the picture are the armies with which Prince Henry helped to cap- 
ture the Mohammedan city of Ceuta in Africa 



[352] 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 353 

learned that the sea beyond Cape Non was no different 
from that nearer home. 

Before long, however, a new cape barred the way. It 
thrust a long finger a hundred miles westward, and the 
waves ran fiercely at its point. So for many years ships 
ran bravely the thousand miles to Cape Bojador and then 
went back home, having seen no new lands, having got 
no nearer to Asia. But at last a daring captain doubled 
this cape, too, and found the sea on the other 
side "as easy to sail in as the waters at home." 
He carried back to the prince not only his story, but some 
roses that he had gathered in a land hitherto untouched, 
perhaps, by white men. 

Every new cape conquered made the captains bolder. 
The very sununer, indeed, that Gil Eannes passed Bo- 
jador, two young knights of his company, landing with 
their horses, rode twenty miles and had a glimpse giaves 
of the wild natives. After that Antonio Gon- and 
galves, a daring young nobleman in charge of a Wealth, 
ship, being eager for adventure and for honor, ^^'^^ 
and wishing to please his beloved prince, sailed into these 
strange waters. He and his good friend, together with 
twenty men, surprised a httle village, crying out, "Saint 
James for Portugal," as they fell upon the people and 
captured ten men, women, and children. 

This capturing of people who had done no harm does 
not seem to-day like a very noble adventure, but the men 
of Gongalves's company thought so highly of it that 
they considered the young man worthy of knighthood, 
and there on the savage African shore he knelt and re- 
ceived the accolade ^ from the hands of his friend, already 
a knight. It seemed important to these men to be able 
to carry back to their prince real living natives of that 

1 See page 238. 



354 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

far-off fairyland. Prince Henry, also, thought this a 
great and useful deed, for he hoped to make Christians 
of these captives and to get from them, too, more definite 
knowledge concerning their country. So, indeed, it 
proved, and a little later Gongalves got in partial exchange 
for one of his captives a little bag of gold dust together 
with a few black men, the slaves of the Moorish tribe to 
which the captives belonged. 

Gold and slaves to be had for the capturing ! White 
men needed no further encouragement to make the 
African voyage. Little trading settlements grew up on 
this gold coast. Then began the slave traffic, that con- 
tinued for almost four hundred years. Ships came and 
went, laden with gold and with black men, the sea roads 
grew busy, and Portugal grew rich. 

But though many men set out for Africa only in the 
hope of gain, caring nothing for finding new lands or 
for getting new knowledge, yet the prince kept his 
scientific interest, his love of discovery. He had read 
the old story told by Herodotus, the Greek historian, 
who says: "Neco, king of Egypt, . . . sent certain 
Phoenicians in ships [from the Red Sea] with orders to 
sail back through the Pillars of Hercules into the northern 
sea [that is, the Mediterranean] and so to return to Egypt. 
The Phoenicians, accordingly, setting out from the Red 
Sea, navigated the southern sea. When autumn came, 
they went ashore and sowed the land by whatever part 
of Libya [that is, Africa] they happened to be sailing, and 
waited for the harvest. Then, having reaped the grain, 
they put to sea again. When two years had thus passed, 
in the third, having doubled the Pillars of Hercules, they 
arrived in Egypt." ^ 

As the prince's discoveries and studies continued, he 

* See page 8. 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 355 

probably came to think: ''That voyage is a proof that 
Africa has an end toward the south. The Indian Ocean 
over east of it and the Atlantic west of it must flow to- 
gether at that southern end. If we could round that 
point, we should come into the Indian Ocean and might 
sail on to China and the Spice Islands." But Prince 
Henry died before his ships had gone half the way down 
the African coast as we know it now. 

Yet he had not spent his forty years of work in vain. 
Men had sailed westward for eight hundred miles and had 
found, not a sea of darkness, not the edge of Results 
the world, but the fair islands of the Azores, of Prince 
They had sailed southward to the equator, and Henry's 
their ships had not been sucked down into ^^ 
a boiling whirlpool, nor had the men been burned black 
by a scorching sun. Indeed, they had found a land rich 
with more flourishing plants than grew in Portugal. 
Moreover, Prince Henry had trained up a class of captains 
and sailors who knew better how to handle a ship and to 
take reckonings than seamen before them. And hun- 
dreds of people became interested in sailing around Africa. 

So the voyages continued after Prince Henry's death. 
In 1486 his nephew. King John, sent out four expeditions 
at once. 

One man went through Egypt to the hidden lands of 
Africa, exploring the shore. Here he found, stretching 
along the eastern coast, a line of Mohammedan 
towns of busy traders, where came ships from ^°® 
India and Arabia. He sent letters home, say- xumed 
ing : ''Keep southward. If you persist, Africa 
must come to an end. And when ships come to the 
Eastern Ocean let them ask for Sofala and the island of 
the Moon [Madagascar], and they will find pilots to take 
them to Malabar [in India]." 



356 



BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 



1487 



That was an encouraging message, indeed, and a helpful 
discovery. But another of King John's expeditions made 
a still more important one. Bartholomew Diaz 
with two ships sailed southward along Africa 
for sixteen months. In winter cold and on tossing seas 
he rounded the end of Africa at last, and knew that the 

next Portuguese ship 
might sail on into the 
warm, busy waters of 
the East. But his 
own men did not realize 
what a great thing 
they had done, and, 
worn out with cold 
and long sailing, de- 
manded to go home. 
The king of Portugal, 
when he heard Diaz's 
story, knew that Prince 
Henry's dream was 
reaUzed, that the sea 
road to India was open. 
Therefore he refused 
to call the new point 
''Cape of Storms," 
as the wind-tossed sailor Diaz had named it, but rather 
"Cape of Good Hope," because it opened to Portugal 
so good hopes of trade and wealth. 

Yet it was ten years before any one again doubled the 
cape and made the much-hoped-for voyage into the 
Indian Ocean. Fom* ships were built on purpose, and 
the king put in command of them a Portuguese gentle- 
man, Vasco da Gama. The king and the queen and the 
nobles of the court gathered to see the beginning of this 




Exploration Moves down the Afri- 
can Coast 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 



357 



yet untried voyage. They and the adventurers crowded 
into a chapel to ask God's blessing on this great Ground 
attempt. After that, two long years passed, the Cape 
and no news came to the king concerning the fate *» i^^ia, 
of the expedition. But in another two months ^^^^ 
the ships sailed into harbor with the rich smell of spices 



Medit-errftnean 




Western Africa 

From a globe made in 1492 
by Behaim. The large flags 
show the discoveries of the 
Portuguese. Notice that 
the people live in tents 



clinging about them, and Da Gama put into the hands of 
the king a letter from an Indian ruler. '' Vasco da Gama, 
a nobleman of your household," it said, ''has visited my 



358 



BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 



kingdom and has given me great pleasure. In my king- 
dom there is abundance of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, 
pepper, and precious stones. What I seek from thy 
country is gold, silver, coral, and scarlet." 

Da Gama had a marvelous story to tell. In his voyage 
southward he had not clung to the coast of Africa, as 

others had done, but had 

laid a circling course through 

the broad Atlantic, thinking 

to shorten the dis- 

Da Gama's , -n • j 

Experience ^^^^6. For mnety- 
three days he had 
sailed without sight of land. 
Then he had touched Africa, 
and from that time on he 
had stopped here and there 
to explore or to get fresh 
water or fish or game. 

Farther north along the 
coast they had found the 
Mohammedan country that 
King John's traveler had 
written of. Here were well- 
built cities, with beautiful 
palaces and gardens, some- 
what like those of Moorish Spain and northern Africa. 
The people were civilized Arabs, dressing in silks and sit- 
ting upon rich cushions. In the harbors were trading 
ships from India. The king of one of these towns had 
given Da Gama pilots, who had guided him to the kingdom 
of Calicut, in India, the land of silks and gems and spices. 
The Portuguese sailors had actually set foot upon this 
fabulous land, had talked with the people, had bowed 
before its king, and had received a letter from his hand. 




Vasco da Gama 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 359 

But Moorish merchants who Uved in this country, being 
jealous of the strangers, had made them much trouble, so 
that the Portuguese had scarcely escaped with their lives. 

On the way home, moreover, they had met hard winds 
in crossing the Indian Ocean and had been three months 
and three days without sighting land, so that food had 
become scarce and water low. Thirty men had died of 
scurvy, and only seven or eight in each ship had been 
able to work the ropes and attend to the sailing. When 
they had at last landed on the African coast they had 
burned one ship, because they had had too few men to sail 
them all. Hard and long had been the first voyage to India. 

That expedition was the joy of geographers, because 
it laid open a half of the world hitherto un- ^po^u- 
known. That letter from an Indian ruler was guese 
a trumpet call to Portuguese merchants, be- Empire 
cause it promised trade and wealth. Before 
twenty years were gone, a Portuguese army had fought in 
Persia and India and Siam, had captured the five most 
useful seaports, had built up a Portuguese empire in the 
East over which a Portuguese viceroy ruled. Storehouses, 
markets, and dwellings were built in the cities of Asia 
like those in the factories of the Hanse towns in northern 
Europe ^ and of the Italian towns in the eastern Mediter- 
ranean. Portuguese officers were left in charge of these 
factories, with workmen to repair and build ships and 
handle goods and with soldiers and warships to guard 
the settlements. 

Fleets of Portuguese vessels passed to and fro around 
the Cape of Good Hope to trade in Arabia, India, and the 
eastern islands. From Europe they carried copper, 
quicksilver, vermilion dye, brass basins from Flanders, 
scarlet cloth, colored silks, perhaps made in Florence. 

1 See page 286. 



360 



BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 



They found in the storehouses at the Indian factories 
rice, sugar, honey, oil, cocoanuts. Portuguese ships 
went even further, out into the island-sown ocean south 
of Siam, and one little fleet of vessels turned northward 
and visited that marvelous China that Marco Polo had 
written of. Travelers explored lands unknown before 
and wrote books about them. Europeans were beginning 
to be at home in Africa and Asia. 



Spanish Ships in a New World 

While Portugal was uncovering hidden Africa and 
before she had found the southeastern path to India 
through strange seas and dreaded dangers, 
another sailor and scientist was forming a 
different plan — to sail westward from Por- 
tugal across the Atlantic and so to come to China. For 



A New 
Plan 




The World as Europeans Knew it before 1492 



he, like Prince Henry, had read the Greek books about 
geography and believed that the earth is round. He had 
read, too, the books of the great travelers in China, 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 361 

and he noted that they said the ocean was east of Asia 
as it was west of Europe. He thought, therefore, that 
the sea lapped over the globe from Europe to Asia, that 
the ocean lying at his feet as he stood on the Portuguese 
shore washed the rich coasts of China on the other side 
of the world. 

This dreamer was Christopher Columbus. He had 
grown up in Genoa, the great Italian trading town. 
There he had seen ships sail out for strange- 
sounding places at the far end of the sea, and ^f^^^ 
he had beheld them come back and unload coiiunbus 
jewels and silks and spices that smelled of 
China and the yet more distant Cipango or Japan. Being 
an imaginative boy, he had formed a "magnificent and 
great desire to find a way to where the spices grew." 
He had gone to the university to learn mathematics and 
astronomy so that he should be able to find his way 
through unknown waters. He had learned Latin so 
that he might read the books that Eastern travelers had 
written. 

Then he had gone to Portugal, the sailors' paradise. 
He had become acquainted with some of her great cap- 
tains and had married the daughter of one of them. He 
himself says in his journal: ''I have traversed the sea 
for twenty-three years without leaving it for any time 
worth counting, and I saw all in the east and the west, 
going on the route of the north, which is England, and I 
have been to Guinea [that is, Africa]." He had talked 
with some of the wise men in Prince Henry's old school 
and had seen the precious maps in his museum. And 
all the time his dream kept growing stronger and more 
real before his eyes. 

At last he was received by the king of Portugal and 
told him of his plan. But it seemed like a wild scheme 




362] 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 363 

to the king and his councilors, and they refused him 
ships. Columbus left Portugal in anger, but he did not 
give up his plan. He was determined to cross 
that uncrossed sea. Yet he was a poor man, *^*^°'"'" 

'^^ agements 

and only a king's purse was large enough to 

supply the ships and hire the men necessary for the 

great voyage. 

During eight years he sought one government, then 
another, perhaps Genoa and Venice and England. He 
interviewed great nobles of Spain, and they sent him 
to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. But they were 
busy with their wars against the Moors ; for they had 
determined to free Spain utterly from her old-time Mo- 
hammedan conquerors.^ So Columbus was kept waiting 
four years at the court. 

The stories of that weary time, with the learned scoffing 
at him and the ignorant laughing, with the delays on 
account of wars and princely marriages and royal business, 
with the examination by men who thought themselves 
wiser than this unknown sailor ; the story of his bitter dis- 
appointment, of his leaving the court, of his poverty, of his 
wanderings, of the friends he found, and of his second 
visit to the court — all these stories show him as a sad 
and suffering man, but a man of burning enthusiasm 
and of iron will. He believed in his dream. And because 
he believed, because he would not give up, and because he 
had real knowledge and science on his side, he won at last. 

On August 3, 1492, seven months after the Moorish 
war was finished and Spain was at last free 
from the Mohammedans and proud of her ^^i"™- 

bus 

victory, three little ships set sail from the voyage 

Spanish harbor of Palos — the Santa Maria, the 

Pinta, and the Nina. There were one hundred twenty 

' See page 326. 



364 



BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 



men on board, and Columbus commanded them as 
admiral. The wharves were crowded with their friends, 
weeping ; for they thought never again to see ships or 
sailors who were facing the horrors of an unsailed ocean. 




Columbus, Departing on His First Voyage, Takes Leave 
OF the King and Queen 

Notice that the ships anchor and send rowboats ashore 

It proved, however, to be a very mild, safe voyage. 
''The sea was like a river, the air pleasant and very mild," 
says Columbus in his journal, where every night he 
wrote down with care all the happenings of the day. 
Again he says, "It is a pleasure to be here, so balmy are 
the breezes." The sailors even bathed alongside, bathed 
in bottomless waters, in seas thousands of miles broad, 
in an ocean never before touched by ships ! 

But even in fair weather it is a hard thing to face the 
unknown, day after day, to see every evening at sunset 
and every morning at dawn the same empty ocean. 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 365 

Moreover, the constant east wind that pleased Columbus 
because it was driving him on towards Asia frightened 
the sailors because it was driving them away from home. 
"My people were much excited," Columbus says, ''at 
the thought that in these seas no wind ever blew in the 
direction of Spain." After a month the men could endure 
no longer. They had been grumbling among themselves. 
At last they complained aloud to the admiral and de- 
manded that he should turn the ship about and sail 
home. 

"But," says Columbus, "the admiral cheered them up 
in the best way he could." Doubtless he painted glowing 
pictures of the riches they would find in China. He per- 
haps reminded them of the letter, written on parchment 
and bearing the great seals of the king and the queen. 
This he was carrying to that magnificent monarch of 
China, the Grand Khan. When encouragement failed 
to calm his sailors, this man of iron will told them that 
"However much they might complain, he had to go to the 
Indies, and that he would go on until he found them, with 
the help of our Lord." Two nights later they 
saw land, and on the morning of Friday, October y f^ ^ 
twelfth, they set foot upon solid earth. 

For the next three months they explored these coasts. 
Columbus must have been disappointed. He had ex- 
pected to find the gorgeous China of which he had read 
in Marco Polo's book, with its thousands of ships, its 
marble bridges, its palaces, its exquisite gardens, its 
princes in embroidered silk, its gold and jewels and per- 
fumes and precious spices. Instead he saw naked people, 
living in rude huts, with hardly a glint of gold. Yet he 
seems to have enjoyed those months of exploration. He 
had an eye for beautiful scenery, and he found here a 
landscape that delighted him. "I walked among the 



366 



BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 



!&ceamca 



trees," he says, ''which was the most beautiful thing I 
had ever seen. ... I can never tire my eyes in looking 
at such lovely vegetation. ... I found the smell of 
the trees and flowers so delicious that it seemed the 
pleasantest thing in the world. ... I wanted to go and 

anchor there," he says of 
a certain coast, "so as to 
go on shore and see so 
much beauty." 

He was gentle and 
friendly with the natives, 
never allowing his men to 
hurt them or to take their 
goods. For he knew that 
many ships of Spain would 
follow him, that the king 
and queen would build 
towns in this new land, 
and he hoped to have the 
natives receive Spaniards 
as friends. Moreover, the 
great admiral was a man 
of religious heart. ''This 
was the beginning and end of the undertaking," he says, 
"namely, the increase and glory of the Christian reli- 
gion," and he begged the king and queen to send mis- 
sionaries to convert the natives. 

When the explorers set sail for home, instead of costly 
cinnamon and pepper they carried a few rolls of a strange 
thing that the natives burned in their mouths and which 
they called "tobacco." Instead of silks they had samples 
of cotton. Instead of embroidered robes they had curious 
things woven of string in which the people slept and which 
they called "hammocks." No wealthy Chinese mer- 




The Santa Maria 

Perhaps Columbus himself drew 
the picture 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 367 

chants accompanied them, but a few naked and painted 
"Indians," as Columbus called them. The admiral 
still carried the royal letter for the Grand Khan, un- 
delivered. 

There had been tears and smiles of scorn and gloomy 
prophecies when Columbus had sailed from Spain, When 
he returned, there were processions and shout- 
ings of joy and crowded roadsides and house- „°"™ "^ 

* ^ -^ Return 

tops wherever he passed. Noblemen rode out 
of the city to welcome him. The whole court assembled 
to meet him, and the king and queen rose up from 
their thrones to do him honor. People gazed with 
wonder and surprise at the Indians, the stuffed animals, 
and the dried branches of fruits and flowers that he had 
brought. They listened with delight to his descriptions 
of the countries he had seen and to his hopes of finding 
the Grand Khan on his next voyage. Every one felt 
that he had well earned his title of Spanish Admiral of 
the High Seas for himself and his heirs forever, of viceroy 
and governor over all continents and islands that he 
should discover, and the noble name of Don. 

What had he really done? He himself thought that 
he had found a new way to China and India. The Span- 
ish king and queen evidently thought that he 
had discovered some new islands, probably near jj ^f n ^ 
neighbors to Asia. He had in reality done a 
great deal more. The shores which he had found were 
the island fringe of a new world, the West Indies of our 
America. He had, moreover, broken the magic of the 
unknown sea. Men had for centuries lived on its edge 
and wondered how far it stretched and what manner of 
end it had, but no man had dared to explore it. Now, 
however, a man had laughed at fears and foolish stories, 
had risked all the horrors, had proved that this sea was 



368 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

as much a sailor's home as any other. He had laid out a 
road across that untraveled ocean; for where one ship 
had gone others might go. Spain rang with the glory of 
the voyage, and the sailors in every seaport of Europe 
must have longed to try their skill and their luck in a like 
adventure. 

Rival Explorers 

In England, indeed, men were unwilling to see Spain 
monopolize the new lands. In 1497, only five years 
_. after Columbus' voyage, John Cabot, a Vene- 

Explora- tian sailor, put out from Bristol, England, with 
tion : a letter in his sea chest, giving him the right to 

Cabot, explore in the west and claim new lands for the 
English king. An Italian, visiting in Eng- 
land, wrote to an Italian duke : "In this kingdom there 
is a certain Venetian named Zoanne Caboto, of gentle 
disposition, very expert in navigation, who seeing that 
the most serene kings of Portugal and Spain had oc- 
cupied unknown islands, meditates the achievement of a 
similar expedition for the said Majesty. Having obtained 
royal privileges securing to himself the use of the dominions 
he might discover, the sovereignty being reserved to the 
Crown, he intrusted his fortune to a small vessel with a 
crew of eighteen persons and set out from Bristol, a port 
in the western part of this kingdom. ... At length he 
hit upon land, where he hoisted the royal standard and 
took possession for his highness, and having obtained 
various proofs of his discovery, he returned." In two 
voyages he touched upon the shores of modern Canada 
and of the United States. 

What country could find more lands and richer ones? 
That was the question. The Portuguese kept pushing 
farther and farther east, even as far as the Molucca 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 369 

Islands, where the spices grew. One of their captains 
on his way southward to round Africa was Portuguese 
carried by wind and current far to the west, in Brazil, 
so that he touched the coast that we now call ^5oo 
Brazil. He claimed it for his country, and hers it re- 
mained for almost four hundred years. 

But Spain was yet busier. Columbus himself made 
four voyages, exploring many islands of the coiumbus' 
West Indies and the north coast of South Amer- Voyages, 
ica. Other captains coasted around the shore 1492-1502 
of the Gulf of Mexico and touched upon Florida. They 
explored the coasts opposite Cuba and sailed southward 
almost to the tip of South America. Americus still 
Vespucius, an Italian, whose name men later Searching 
gave to the new continents, went with many of *°^ ^^"^* 
these exploring captains and wrote accounts of the voyages.^ 

For a long time these trips up and down the shores 
were not put together in men's minds. People did not 
realize that the land which Vespucius saw north of the 
Gulf of Mexico was connected with that which he found 
hundreds of miles farther south. That northern part 
was, to them, Asia. But what was the southern part? 
Marco Polo and the old maps had said nothing of a 
continent south of Asia. Some people began to call 
this the New World. They wondered what shape it had. 
Where was its southern end, or did it have any end? 
What lay east of it ? Other men, however, held a differ- 
ent opinion about that southern land. They considered 
it to be a long cape attached to Asia. It stretched out 
into the ocean and cut off the way to the Spice Islands. 

Magellan, a Portuguese navigator, determined to find 

' A German professor of geography, reading these rather boastful accounts 
and thinking that Vespucius had found the southern mainland before Columbus 
had touched it on his third voyage, suggested that the new continent be called 
America after that discoverer, and so marked it on the map that he published. 



370 



BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 




Part of a Globe Made in 1531 
It shows South America connected with Asia 

his way around this troublesome land to the rich Indies 

hiding behind it. He was already an experi- 
Pi^^^^^^ enced sailor. He had rounded the Cape of 

Good Hope and had done brave fighting for 
Portugal on the shores of Asia. He had sailed farther 
east than most white men of his time. But for one 
reason or another the king of Portugal thought ill of his 
plan, and Magellan, like Columbus, turned from Portu- 
gal to Spain. Again Spain accepted the great man whom 
her neighbor had rejected. 

With five ships and two hundred eighty men Magellan 
started out to meet — he knew not what — and to prove 
beyond all doubt that the earth is round. It was all 

plain sailing to the Canaries, then across the 
Tlie'search ^^^^^ opened Atlantic to Brazil which Portugal 

already owned, and along the coast of the new 
world in Vespucius' track. Here they sailed into many a 
harbor and river mouth, looking for a cut through the 
land from ocean to ocean. But far down on the coast of 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 



371 




A Fleet of Magellan's Time 



South America, in St. Julian's Bay, the stormy winter 
caught the party, and they anchored in the sheltered 
harbor to wait for good sailing weather. Here they 
"set up at the top of the highest mountain which was 
there a very large cross, as a sign that this country be- 
longed to the king of Spain." So says Pigafetta, an 
Italian gentleman who went on the expedition and who 
wrote a journal about it. 

The five months of waiting in severe cold, with little 
to eat and little to do, were hard to bear. The men 
talked among themselves: ''This captain-general of ours 
is a Portuguese, while we are Spaniards, and do not the 
Portuguese and Spaniards hate each other ? He is trying 
to destroy us by keeping us in this miserable frozen land. 
Besides, we have gone farther south than any man ever 
went before. Why do more? Let us kill this captain- 
general and go home." 

So they made their plan, but Magellan learned of it, 
and he had the leaders of the mutiny killed, and some of 
the others he put into chains and imprisoned 
them in the hulls of his ships to work the 
pumps. The Spaniards came to feel fear and respect for 
this man of prompt action and heavy hand and stout 



Trouble 



372 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

heart. When he was ready to sail out in the spring he 
set his prisoners at hberty and gave them work to do, 
though three of the worst trouble makers he abandoned 
on that wild shore to shift for themselves. Before he 
left the harbor one of his ships ran upon rocks and was 
wrecked, though the men were saved. So only four ships 
sailed southward. 

They went on for two months and then did, indeed, find 
a strait leading through the land. This they entered, 
exploring as they went, and when the ships were scattered 
and out from under Magellan's eye, one of them, filled 
with jealous and discontented men, sailed away for 
Spain. The three others, however, kept on feeling their 
way along the winding channel, between lands that were 
''rocky and also stark with eternal cold," so that Magellan 
thought them not worth exploring. Every man's eyes 
were always ahead seeking a glimpse of the ocean that held 
the Moluccas and the well-known world of Asia. At last 
the strait did indeed open out. The shore of the new world 
bent northward. The open Pacific lay before the voyagers. 

But where were the rich Spice Islands? Magellan 
pointed his ships' heads northwest and sailed out into 
the unmapped sea. ''Wednesday, the 28th 
Pacmc ^^ ^^ November, 1520, we came forth out of the 
said strait," says Pigafetta, "and entered into 
the Pacific Sea, where we remained three months and 
twenty days, without taking in provision or other refresh- 
ment." Soon the drinking water was yellow and foul. 
Before much longer the food was gone, and men had only 
the sawdust that they could scrape up in the hull and the 
dirty, wormy crumbs and dust left from the biscuits. 
They even caught the ship's rats and ate them and cut off 
strips of the leather that was bound around the yardarm 
and ate that. 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 373 

Three months and twenty days without proper food 
and proper drink and proper rest ! The men suffered 
many diseases, and nineteen of them died and were 
buried in that strange sea. Nobody knew how far away 
the Spice Islands were. Every day for all that time 
men must have gazed ahead expecting to see the end of 
their horrible voyage. And at last it came. The thing 
that Columbus had hoped to do was done. A European 
ship by sailing west had reached the East. 

The seaworn sailors of Spain and Portugal after a voy- 
age of a year and a half set foot first upon the Ladrones, 
or Thieves' Islands, and then upon the Phil- 
ippines. In this latter place they found the _^ ^^^ 
people friendly and gentle and eager to imitate 
the ways of the wonderful strangers. Magellan straight- 
way set about making them Christians, for he was as 
much a missionary as a discoverer. He had with him a 
slave who had been born in one of the Spice Islands and 
could speak the language of the Philippines. So Magellan 
preached through this interpreter, and the people listened 
with delight and asked to become Christians. They tore 
down their idols and burned them, and Magellan set up 
a cross. ''In eight days," says Pigafetta, ''all the inhabit- 
ants of this island were baptized and some belonging to 
the neighboring islands." 

Magellan, loving these new friends and converts of his, 
determined to help them in war and peace. With sixty 
of his men he went to a near-by island to fight the king's 
battles for him. And there on the edge of the world 
fifteen hundred natives with arrows and javeUns and 
spears and stones defeated the white men and killed the 
brave Magellan, "our mirror, light, comfort, and true 
guide," as Pigafetta calls him. And then these new- 
made Christians showed how much their new religion 



374 



BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 




Magellan's Victorious Ship 

Note the " very good iron cannon," as they were called by a writer of the 
time. The flying Victory is a wooden figurehead such as many old ships had 

and new friendship meant to them, for they turned 
against the defeated white men, tore down the cross and 
broke it to pieces, and killed any Spaniards upon whom 
they could put their hands. 

The rest sailed sadly away, mourning for their captain 
and their slain comrades. They had not enough men 
Around ^^ ^^^^ three ships, and so they burned one. 
the World The other two went on to the Moluccas, 
and Home where the men traded for several months, that 
they might not go home empty-handed. But 



Again 



of those two ships one was lost somewhere in the eastern 
seas. The men of the other suffered almost as much on 
the way around Africa as they had suffered on the open 
Pacific. Pigafetta speaks of the Cape of Good Hope as 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 375 

"that terrible cape," and again calls it ''the largest and 
most dangerous cape in the world." ''We remained off 
that cape for nine weeks," he says, "with the sails struck 
on account of the western and northwestern gales which 
beat against our bows with fierce squalls." They suffered 
from the cold, and they had nothing but rice and water 
to eat. "But the greater number of us, prizing honor 
more than life itself, decided on attempting at any 
risk to return to Spain. . . . We then sailed towards 
the northwest for two whole months without ever 
taking rest ; and in this short time we lost twenty-one 
men." 

So, after three years and two weeks, all that was left 
of Magellan's fleet limped into the home harbor — one 
broken ship and eighteen gaunt men. They 
were the first of men to sail around the world. 
They had done a marvelous thing, and their story stirred 
people's hearts then as it has done ever since. "Worthier, 
indeed, are our sailors of eternal fame," says an old Span- 
ish writer of the time, "than the Argonauts who sailed 
with Jason to Colchis and much more worthy was their 
ship of being placed among the stars than that old Argo." 

Spain had found the southwest passage to the Indies. 
Portugal held that to the southeast. Two other routes 
seemed possible — to the northeast around Europe and 
to the northwest around North America. France began 
to search for the northwest passage. The king of France 
sent word to the king of Spain "asking him by what right 
he and the king of Portugal undertook to monopolize the 
earth. Had our first father, Adam, made them his sole 
heirs? If so, it would be no more than proper for them 
to produce a copy of the will ; and meanwhile he should 
feel at liberty to seize upon all he could get," 




[376] 



SHIPS IN STRANGE SEAS 377 

Thereupon this ambitious King Francis sent Verrazano, 
an Itahan, who explored the shores of what The 
is now the United States in an effort to find a J^^^^ ^ 

Begin to 

strait cutting through it. Of course he failed, Explore, 
because there is no such strait. Ten years later 1524 
Cartier, a Frenchman, found the mouth of the great St. 
Lawrence River and claimed the land for France. 

Spain, Portugal, England, and France were now 
snatching at the new land and its promises of trade. 



The Results of a Century's Work 

Many wonderful things had happened in the hundred 
years since Prince Henry the Navigator had begun his 
work. Men had learned that the torrid zone 
is not a place where crews and ships are burned ^^"^ , , 

^ . ^ Knowledge 

to ashes. The end of Africa had been found, 
and vessels had rounded it, making a familiar path to 
Asia. It had been proved that the Atlantic is not a sea 
of darkness and does not end in a horrible abyss. Two 
new continents had been discovered in the West. A way 
had been found through that new land to the old world 
of the East beyond it. Men's ships had sailed all around 
the ball of the earth. 



1. By looking in all the books you can find, get pictures of boats of 
different times down to the present. What various kinds of power 
have been used to move them? Where has the power been applied? 
2. Find out the speed of modern steamships. The journal of Colum- 
bus records the runs for days of 24 hours as all the way from 63 leagues 
on a day with a fresh, favoring breeze, to 9 leagues in a storm when 
they "took in much sea over the bows," and 7 or 8 leagues when the 
ship's "head was all round the compass owing to the calm that pre- 
vailed." The average run was about 31 leagues. 3. Make a compass 
like the one described on page 342. On a paper a little larger than 



378 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

the dish, mark the directions (North, South, East, and West) and lay 
it correctly under the compass. Of what use is it? Compare your 
compass with a pocket compass or a ship's compass. 4. Make a 
careful map of some creek or some crooked street or some field or 
village that you know well. What are the difficulties of a map maker ? 
5. Lay a modern map beside each of the old maps in this chapter. 
Note the old map maker's mistakes. Note quite as carefully what 
he has right. 6. Look on a modern map of the world and see what 
regions are still unexplored. What is the latest geographical dis- 
covery ? 7. What aids does a modern sea captain have that the early 
navigators did not have? 8. The customs and buildings of India 
have not greatly changed since the times of Marco Polo and Vasco da 
Gama. From the Perry Pictures Company you can get interesting 
scenes in this country. Use them to make an illustrated book. 



CHAPTER XV 

SPAIN AND HER RIVALS 

Spaniards in America 

A NEW world had been found. What use was to be 
made of it? Spain's answer was, "I will get gold and 
silver from it." Spain was a proud country at 
the beginning of the sixteenth century. Her ^ f^ 
nobles had proved their courage and strength by 
overcoming the once conquering Moors and driving them 
back into Africa.^ Except for Portugal her rulers now 
held all the great peninsula, a country as broad as any 
in Europe, and they held, besides, across the sea, posses- 
sions of unknown size, perhaps as wide as the empire of 
Portugal in the East. But Spain herself was poor. She 
had great castles and beautiful churches, populous cities 
and haughty nobles, but farms were few and poorly 
worked, and the cities were more crowded than busy. 
Most Spaniards loved glory and scorned work ; they were 
eager to handle swords rather than tools. 

To the new country now opened to them the most 
adventurous of the Spaniards began to go. 
They explored its coasts, its rivers, its lakes, ^*"<*,^''- 

• , /. 1 . . . 1 ,. . 1 ploration 

its lorests, and its mountains in search of riches. 

Balboa in 1513 struggled across the Isthmus of Darien 

and found, not wealth, but the Pacific Ocean. 

Cortez with a httle Spanish army won Mexico, ^519-1521 

and Pizarro cruelly conquered Peru, and each 

won vast treasure. Expeditions made their way through 

» See pages 326, 363. 
379 



38o 



BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 




1541 



Spanish Conquest of Mexico 



The Aztec Indians of Mexico made this wall painting. Men who can paint like 

this are not uncivilized. Note the feather head-dress and the wicker shields of 

the Aztecs. Before the time of the Spaniards there were no horses in America. 

The Aztec artist has here hinted at the terrible Spanish cruelty. 

Florida and pushed northward from Mexico into what 
are now our southwestern states. De Soto 
explored the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and 
found the Mississippi River. 

In the islands of the West Indies the conquerors found 
great numbers of Indians living a peaceful, rather idle 
life in the mild, fruitful country. According to the 
Spanish idea the land belonged to the king, and he gave 
great tracts of it to the Spanish explorers and conquerors 
and settlers. One man often received thousands of acres 
with three or four Indian towns upon them. The inhab- 
itants became his serfs. 



SPAIN AND HER RIVALS 381 

Men from Spain could not work in this new climate, 
warmer and more moist than their own. Sunstroke 
and fever killed many in the early years. So 
they turned to their serfs and put them to ? li*" 
work on their farms and in their mines. But 
these simple people, used to outdoor life and little work, 
could not endure this new kind of labor. The white 
men, too, by ill fortune, brought disease among them, 
and the Indians died like summer flowers under a frost. 
The first discoverers found perhaps 300,000 inhabitants on 
the island of Haiti : twenty-four years later there were but 
14,000.1 

Since the Indians could not be used, what was to be 
done ? The earth held gold ; Spaniards must have it ; 
somebody must get it for them. They were 
soon making sugar, too, in the islands, and 0,^^° 
each sugar-mill needed from thirty to eighty 
workers. You will remember that the Portuguese, as 
they crept down the coast of Africa in the time of Prince 
Henry, had found a black people,^ whom they thought 
fitted for slavery; that they began slave raids, and car- 
ried away slaves to Portugal and to Spain. When the 
Spanish, therefore, found the natives of the West Indies 
unable to endure the hard labor put upon them, they 
thought of their black slaves at home, and ten years after 
Columbus' discovery, a few were brought over as an 
experiment. The experiment succeeded, the negro slaves 
proved good workers, and a few years later another 
shipload came over. But Spain could not spare her own 
slaves, born in Spain of Christianized parents, trained to 
work in the white man's fashion. So the king of Spain, 

* The Spanish government and the Catholic church felt a sincere interest 
in the Indians and a strong desire to civilize and convert them. The terrible 
story of the islands was not repeated on the mainland. 

'^ See page 354. 



382 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

owner of the new world, granted to Portugal, owner of 
the African coast, the right to sell four thousand African 
black men every year in the West Indies. 

All this negro labor brought from the earth great 
wealth in gold and silver, for the chief business was mining. 

Down from the mountains in all parts of New 
Wealth Spain wound trains of donkeys or of the strange 

American llamas, packed with sticks of silver 
and gold. In storehouses the precious bars were piled up 
to wait for ships to take them to Spain. In companies 
of sixty or seventy the ships set sail, "laden," as ♦a writer 
of the times says, "with cochineal, hides, gold, silver, 
pearls, and other rich wares." Again he tells of a ship un- 
loading "five millions of silver ... so that the whole quay 
lay covered with plates and chests of silver . . . most 
wonderful to behold . . . besides pearls, gold, and other 
stones." He speaks again of a West Indian fleet of one 
hundred ships and says that during one year two hundred 
twenty vessels sailed from America for Spain and Portugal. 
To a country where gold seemed to grow on bushes 
many colonists flocked, and New Spain was changed 

from an Indian land to a white man's country. 

panis j£ ^ baby born in the year when Columbus dis- 
Amenca '' -^ 

covered the new land had lived to be seventy- 
five or eighty years old, he would have seen another 
Spain transplanted into that new world. He would 
have seen over two hundred cities and towns, Spanish 
towns, with streets like those in Spain, with pretty 
houses of stone and plaster, with open squares for pleasure 
and trade, with churches of carved stone. Outside the 
towns were great plantations, growing cattle, spices, and 
rice, all worked by hundreds of slaves. 

A hundred and sixty thousand Spaniards lived on these 
plantations and in these towns, and they had a rich, 



SPAIN AND HER RIVALS 



383 




San Domingo in 1586 

A town on the island of Haiti built by Columbus' brother. The city wail and 

the cannon on the water front protect it. Notice the beautiful church in the 

center of the town 



beautiful life. There were balls where the gentlemen 
danced in long tight hose and silken trunks and velvet 
doublets slashed and puffed and set off with bright 
linings. The ladies were lovely in rich brocades and gold 
cord and falling lace. There were church festivals with 
processions and gay sports in the streets and the square, 
like the festivals at home in Spain. There were monas- 
teries with schools where the children were taught. 
There were a few high schools, too, for boys and girls, 
and the young men went to universities where learned pro- 
fessors were writing books. There were hospitals and 
skilled physicians. 

In fact, Spain did in America what Rome had long ago 
done in Spain : she transplanted her own civilization into 
it. Yet there was this difference : the native Spaniards 



384 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

had adopted Roman ways and Roman learning, had inter- 
married with the Romans, and had built up a new people ; 
the Spaniards in America, on the other hand, were little 
changed by their transplanting, and most of the Indians 
remained a distinct and ignorant people. 

A thing that would seem curious to American eyes in 
this New Spain was the fact that it was almost entirely a 
land of one nationality. There were the negroes, to be 
sure, but they were slaves, and there were Indians, but 
they were almost slaves. There was hardly a Frenchman 
or a German or an Englishman or an Italian to be seen, 
only Spaniards. In the city of Seville sat the Council of 
the Indies, to help the Spanish king in ruling this new 
country. The king and this council made all laws, sent 
governors and generals, gave land and collected taxes. 
These rulers planned to save America for Spaniards of 
true blood and Catholic religion. One of the laws was 
to the effect that "no descendants of Jews, Moors, or of 
heretics . . . down to the fourth generation, be allowed 
to come to the island [that is, Cuba]." It was as though 
there were a wall around Spanish America, with a single 
gate, and only those who could speak the Spanish password 
might go through. 

Indeed it was so, in a way. Colonists could come to 
America only in ships, and ships could unload only in 
harbors. Every harbor town was in charge of a Spanish 
officer with troops and guns for defense. His order was 
to receive only ships carrying papers from the Council at 
Seville stating that they had sailed from that city and 
had a right to put in at Spanish American ports. The 
officer had orders, besides, to permit only Catholic 
Spaniards to land on his shores. There were officers of 
the Inquisition ^ to make sure that those landing were 

1 See page 339. 



SPAIN AND HER RIVALS 385 

Catholics. If they were found to be heretics, they were 
sometimes burned. The plan was largely successful, 
and to-day almost all of America below the United States 
is Catholic, and nearly all but Brazil is Spanish in 
speech and custom. 

Spain and Her Enemies : 1. France 

When Columbus discovered America, Spain was ruled 
by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and had little 
to do with the rest of Europe. Their daughter, 
however, married a prince of the powerful rh^^y 
German family of Hapsburg, and so it hap- 
pened that a few years later a young man inherited the 
crown who was not only king of Spain, but archduke of 
Austria and duke and count of many places, besides being 
king of several others. In addition to all this he soon 
became emperor of the Holy Roman empire. His titles 
would have filled a page. 

Francis I, king of France, looked with dread and 
jealousy upon the overgrown possessions of this Charles, 
encircling France and threatening to strangle 
her. It was he who had haughtily questioned J^^^^^"^ 
Spain's right to monopolize the world. ^ He 
sent Verrazano and Cartier to snatch a part of the new 
world from Charles.^ In Europe, too, he tried to humble 
him. Ever since two years after Columbus discovered 
America France and Spain had been at war over Italy. 
This war Francis I gladly continued in order to lower the 
Hapsburg pride and lessen the Hapsburg dominions. At 
last, however, it was he who was humbled and had to make 
peace. After that defeat Frenchmen continued to hate 
Spain, and wherever French and Spanish met there was 

1 See page 375. 2 See page 377. 



386 



BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 




Emperor Charles V 



likely to be blood spilled. An event that happened in 
America illustrates the hard feeUng between the two 
nations. 

Revolt from the CathoHc Church, you remember, had 
spread into France.^ Thousands of people had left the 

» See pages 337-338. 



SPAIN AND HER RIVALS 387 

old church and become Protestants, or Huguenots, after 
Calvin's teaching. But the majority of French- 
men remained Catholic and, as happened at *J®"*^" 
first in every country, looked with suspicion and 
anger upon the new religious rebels. They thought to root 
out heresy by persecution. Occasionally French Protes- 
tants were arrested and burned, and Protestant churches 
torn down. Yet the Huguenots increased in numbers, 
especially among the nobles. One of these Huguenot 
nobles, Coligny, had the high position of Admiral of 
France and was a friend and adviser of his king. He 
looked across the ocean and saw, he thought, a refuge for 
his persecuted fellow-Protestants and at the same time a 
chance to get new land for France and to break Spain's 
monopoly. 

Three times Coligny got his king's consent for groups 
of Huguenots to found settlements in America. The 
first was in Portuguese Brazil, but the Portu- 
guese drove the colonists out. The second ^uguenots 

11 r ^ • f-i 1 /-. 1- '"^ America 

was on the shore 01 what is now South Carolma, 
but hunger, mutiny, Indian troubles, and disappointment 
made this a failure also. The third attempt was on the 
shore of Florida. This was Spanish territory. Back 
in 1513 Ponce de Leon had landed there, had explored the 
shore and claimed it for Spain, and had given it the 
Spanish name of Florida. Frenchmen would have been 
glad to cut off this possession of the Spanish king. So in 
1564 Coligny's colony built Fort Caroline on the St. 
John's River and began to explore for gold. Some 
mutineers left the settlement, sailed out to sea, and raided 
a Spanish ship. 

Spain took terrible revenge. The Spanish king sent 
Menendez, a wolf of a man, with ships and men to wipe 
the Frenchmen out. He did it thoroughly, killing in cold 



388 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

blood over five hundred French captives. Some he hanged 
to trees with a sign that read, "Not as to Frenchmen, 
but as to Lutherans." Two years later a Frenchman, 
seeking revenge, landed on the Florida coast with two 
hundred men, surprised the Spanish fort at St. Augustine, 
killed the garrison, and hanged several to trees with a 
sign that read, "Not as to Spaniards, but as to liars and 
murderers." Frenchmen had taken vengeance, but they 
never again tried to colonize Florida. A few years later 
they returned to America again, but not to the Spanish 
south. They sought once more the great St. Lawrence, 
which Cartier had found more than seventy years earlier.^ 

Spain and Her Enemies : 2. The Netherlands 

Philip II, the son of Charles V, inherited all of his 
father's possessions except those connected with Austria. 
United Spain was his, so was southern Italy and 
SpaLa ° Sicily, so was the Netherlands, or what is now 
Holland and Belgium ; America, besides, was 
his, and during his reign he conquered Portugal. But in 
spite of all his great kingdom and all his great titles he 
was not a great man. He was an enemy to liberty : 
men must think as he directed. He was suspicious and 
jealous : a general who served him badly was hated and 
punished for failure ; and one who served him well was 
hated and punished for success. Philip was cruel ; it 
was he who sent Menendez to wipe out the French 
colony, and he was angry that any man, woman, or child 
had escaped the butcher. He was a strong Catholic, 
and he meant to free the world of heretics. He gloried 
in the bloody work of the Inquisition and, it is said, laughed 
when he heard of a great massacre of the Huguenots in 
Paris. He was ambitious to be the most important ruler 

1 See page 377. 



SPAIN AND HEK RIVALS 



389 



of Europe, and he had spies in every court, that he might 
know all secrets and turn them to his advantage. 

If the other peoples of Europe hated Spain under the 
great Charles, they hated it still more under Philip, and of 
them all the Nether- 
lands hated most, hav- 
ing suffered most. 

The Netherlands 
was a country of great 
cities. For hundreds 
of years it had been 
filled with rich weavers 
and merchant princes, 
The gilds, in their day, 
had nowhere been 
stronger, and every 
city of the Netherlands 
had its beautiful old 
gild halls. These rich 
merchants and gilds- 
men had bought the 
freedom of their towns. 
That was in the days 
when the cities had be- 
longed some to the 
duke of this, others to 
the count of that. 
Even in Philip's day, though he possessed all the titles of 
these old dukes and counts, yet the Netherlands was not 
a united country, but, like Germany and Italy, a group of 
separate states, each with its own laws and customs and 
privileges. Every state was fond of its privileges and 
proud of its history and its wealth. Trouble began to 
brew, therefore, when haughty Philip inherited the country 




Philip II 



390 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

and planned to rule like a tyrant. He snapped his fingers 
at old laws. He insulted Dutch and Flemings and put 
Spanish officers over them. Being hungry for money, he 
laid so heavy a tax on the country that ''merchants de- 
clined to deal, shops were shut, trade was at a standstill, 
debtors were not able to meet their creditors, and many 
banks broke." 

The Netherlands, moreover, was full of heretics. 
From Germany at the east the people had learned 

Lutheranism, and from France at the south they 
tion^^^"" ^^^ learned Presbyterianism, and Philip, His 

Most Catholic Majesty, hated all heretics. He 
set up the Inquisition ^ here in the Netherlands, as he did 
throughout all his great empire, to punish heretics, and he 
sent an army and a butcher of a governor to punish rebels. 
That governor, the Duke of Alva, boasted that during 
the six years of his rule, he killed eighteen thousand 
heretics. Sixty thousand more fled to England, and even 
more than that to Germany, but the people of the Nether- 
lands were sturdy, stubborn folk, and they would not be 
subdued. For more than fifty years they fought for their 
freedom. Sometimes they had England's help, because 
England also was Protestant. Sometimes they had the 
aid of France, because France also feared and hated 
Spain. But both were fickle friends, and it was the 
strength of the Dutch themselves and the wisdom of the 
men of one of their own noble families that at last won 
independence. 

Of these patriotic nobles the first and most stubborn 

fighter was William, Prince of Orange, he whom 
wmiam ^^^ Hollanders to-day call the father of their 

of Orange 

freedom. Though he had begun life as a 
wealthy, honored, ambitious prince, a Catholic and a 

1 See page 339. 



SPAIN AND HER RIVALS 391 

favorite of the Spanish king, yet for twenty years he 
labored for the freedom of his country, spending his 
money in her cause, risking his Ufe for her, and finally 
dying a martyr in her behalf. He was determined 
to sweep the Netherlands clean of Spaniards, to restore 
the old laws and Uberty of the land, to win freedom of 
worship for Protestants and Catholics alike. To gain 
these purposes he fought battle after battle and with- 
stood siege after siege. 

Some of those sieges were among the bravest and saddest 
in all the sad history of war. Men, women, and children, 
shut up for ten months in Leyden, surrounded 
by Spanish armies so that no food and no mes- ^'^6®°^ 
sengers except carrier pigeons could pass, saw 1574^°* 
their dearest and best drop from famine or 
disease, saw their strongest starve to skeletons, themselves 
reduced to eat refuse ; and yet they held out. Holland 
is a low, salt marsh, lying below the level of the sea. 
The people through centuries had built dikes through the 
shallow shore waters, cutting the ocean off from the land, 
had pumped the sea out of this fenced country, and at last 
sat safe and serene behind their sea walls. Now in their 
great need the people of Leyden cut the dikes and flooded 
the land in order to float their own navy in to their rescue. 

Nor was this the only time the Dutch made the sea 
their ally. ''Better ruin the land than lose the land," 
they said. The Spanish Duke of Alva, who was fighting 
against the people, wrote to his king : ''Never was seen on 
this earth such a war as this, never was a fortress so well de- 
fended of men. They have an excellent engineer [that is, 
William], who has devices that were never yet heard, or 
seen." 

Through it all William was not only fighting battles, 
but he was writing protests to the king of Spain and 



392 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

pleas to the queen of England and the rulers of France 
to help the suffering Netherlands with troops and money. 
He was sending eloquent appeals to the little states of the 
Netherlands to hold together in the cause of freedom. 
''A fagot bound together cannot be broken as easily as 
single sticks," he said. 

But he could gain only a part of his purpose. The ten 
states of the southern Netherlands combined and declared 
Dutch their loyalty to Spain and to the Catholic re- 

Declaration ligion. But the seven northern states joined 
of inde- together as the United Provinces of the Nether- 
pen ence j^j^^jg j^ their declaration of independence 
they said : "All mankind know that a prince is appointed 
by God to- cherish his subjects, even as a shepherd to 
guard his sheep. When, therefore, the prince does not 
fulfill his duty as protector; when he oppresses his sub- 
jects, destroys their ancient liberties, and treats them as 
slaves, he is to be considered, not a prince but a tyrant. As 
such the estates of the land [that is, the assembly of dele- 
gates, like our Congress] may lawfully and reasonably 
depose him, and elect another in his room." 
And so the Dutch deputies, gathered at The 
Hague, proceeded to depose Philip and to elect in his 
place the patriot William and another prince. Inside of 
two years, however, the noble Prince of Orange was 
assassinated, crying out as he fell, ''God pity my poor 
country!" 

The struggle with Spain continued, and William's 
son took his place in the government and in the army. 
There were more brave sieges, more battles on land and 
fighting on sea. Not for twenty-five years was the war 
quite over, and Holland ^ able to stand forth as a united 

> The United Netherlands was frequently called Holland, as it still is, from 
the name of its largest and most important state. 



SPAIN AND HER RIVALS 393 

and free country, a new member of the family of modern 
national states. 

After that Holland prospered. The number of her 
ships increased and the boldness of her seamen. They 
harried Spaniards wherever they found them. _ 

Prosperity 

They sailed into all the ports of the world 
and traded. They rounded Africa in the track of the 
Portuguese, who were then under the rule of Spain,^ and 
took their Eastern empire from them. In 1609 
Henry Hudson, an English seaman employed " ^°^' 
by Holland, seeking a new route to the Indies, 
discovered on the American shores the great river now 
called the Hudson, and claimed for Holland all the land 
that it drained. "The Dutch had made themselves the 
common carriers of the world," says a writer of the time. 
The inhabitants of Holland ''sucked honey, like the bee, 
from all parts," says another. And all these prosperous 
Dutch merchants were haters of Spain. 

Spain and Her Enemies : 3. England 

Spain had another bitter enemy — England. One 
reason for English hatred was commercial jealousy. 
England had become a trading nation. During 
the Middle Ages trade had been in other hands. ^"S^sh 
Hanse ships had carried to her shores the prod- Begins 
ucts of the North, and Venetian ships the 
products of the East. But the Hanseatic League had 
grown weak as the new nations of Europe grew strong, had 
lost its great factories and many of its members. The 
Italian trade in the East had been spoiled by the Turks ^ 
and the new route around Africa,^ and the Venetian gal- 
leys visited England less and less often. As trade dropped 

1 See page 419. » See page 346. ' See pages 358-369. 



394 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

out of the hands of these earlier merchants, Englishmen 
picked it up. They began to build better ships and to sail 
into distant waters after the goods that foreigners had 
once brought to them. Instead of sending their raw wool 
to Flemish towns, they had begun to weave it them- 
selves and to send out the cloth. 

These ambitious merchants saw a great new world 
opened up in America, a world full of riches, yet in this 
new world they were not permitted to set foot. Much 
of its gold found its way into England, for the Spanish 
colonies needed the grain and the cloth which England 
produced and Spain neglected, but Englishmen might 
not take their goods direct to America, They had to 
carry them to Spanish ports and there sell them to be 
loaded upon the Spanish ships of the colonial fleets. Eng- 
lish traders felt that in this way many drops were spilled 
between the cup and the lip. They wanted to go, them- 
selves, into this new land that was at once rich and 
hungry, and there trade foods and cloth for gold. 

Another cause of England's hatred of Spain was the 
difference in religion. About 1534 England broke away 
from the Roman church, and became Protes- 
Rehgious tg^Yii^ Spain, on the other hand, boasted that 
ences there was not a heretic in her country. The 

Inquisition guarded the ports, lest foreign 
heretics should come in. Its officers boarded every in- 
coming ship and examined the crew. Many an English- 
man was arrested and thrown into prison for the crime of 
having an English Bible in his sea chest. 

Thus jealousy and religious difference made Englishmen 
and Spaniards enemies. If English sailors could slip 
into some unguarded harbor in Spanish America, unload 
a cargo and trade it to the people for gold, without being 
caught by the officials, they not only filled their pockets, 




395] 



Privateers 



396 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

but rejoiced that they had struck a Uttle blow at the enemy 
of their land and their religion. Were not the rich 
ships of the Spanish fleet filled, not only with gold, but 
with men who imprisoned good English patriots ? There- 
fore, if a ship in a storm should be driven away from its 
company, to drift alone on the broad sea, would it not be 
a just act for patriotic Englishmen to capture her ? Many 
an EngHsh crew shouted a hearty "yes" to such a 
question. 

English smacks that had once gone fishing to Iceland, 
now turned their prows southward, for there were better 
fish in the sea than cod, namely, Spanish gal- 
leons ; and catching them was an act of patriot- 
Pirates ^^^- Trading goods for gold in Spanish towns 
was slow business for merchant ships, but trad- 
ing cannon balls for gold on the high seas was a rich and 
exciting adventure and was done in the service of God and 
country. England had few warships, and dared not go to 
war with mighty Spain, but the English queen, Elizabeth, 
was glad to see her bold seamen prick the Spanish king with 
their private swords, so she only smiled and kept silent 
when he complained of her lawless citizens. When such 
sailors could get special letters from the queen, they were 
"privateers," that is, men who were privately doing their 
queen's work. But without these letters, they had to 
run the risk of being hanged as pirates if the Spaniards 
captured them. That risk they were willing to take in 
order to gather riches and to punish the Spanish king for 
abusing English seamen and to break down the Spanish 
fence around America. 

Francis Drake was one of the boldest and most success- 
ful of these seamen. He was a very religious 

Drake . 

and patriotic man. He hated Catholics, and 
he hated Spaniards. He loved England, he loved his 




" Francis Drake 

most noble knight of England, in the forty-third year of his age." So says the 
Latin above the picture. In the time of this knight armor was rare. If it was 
worn at all, it was much ornamented, like the helmet under Drake's hand. In 
the upper right-hand corner is Sir Francis' coat of arms, like those painted on 
earlier knightly shields. 



■397I 



398 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

queen, Elizabeth, he loved adventure, and he had no dis- 
like for treasure. He never feared man or storm. He 
lived all his life on the sea and could fight as well as he 
could sail. For years he was the daredevil of the sea. 
The Spaniards called him "the dragon," "the demon." 
With two little ships and seventy-three men he sailed into 
the Spanish sea in the elbow of Central America, found 
the hiding place of Spanish treasure, made friends with 
Spain's enemies there, nursed forty of his men through 
the fever, slipped out of the fingers of a Spanish fleet, 
captured a mule train of treasure and a storehouse where 
lay "a pile of silver bars ten feet in breadth, ten feet in 
height, and seventy feet in length," took a town from a 
full Spanish garrison, scuttled one of his ships, filled the 
other with treasure, and sailed home under the very nose 
of the Spanish fleet. 

On that trip, from a tree top on the Isthmus of Darien, 
Drake had caught sight of the Pacific Ocean, where an Eng- 
lish ship had never floated, and he longed to sail it. So 
within a few months he manned five ships with a hundred 
sixty-four men and was off again. He swung across the 
south Atlantic to the very harbor on the far southern 
coast of America where Magellan had wintered fifty- 
eight years earlier.^ Like Magellan he had to quell 
a mutiny. Two ships he had to break up and leave, 
because he had not men enough to work them in heavy 
weather. A terrible storm blew him southward and kept 
him for a month on the open sea, past Cape Horn, without 
chance of harbor. "The seas . . . were rolled up from 
the depths, even from the roots of the rocks . . . ; and 
being aloft were carried in most strange manner and 
abundance, as feathers or drifts of snow, by the violence 
of the winds, to water the exceeding tops of high and lofty 

1 See page 371. 



SPAIN AND HER RIVALS 



399 



mountains." Thus writes one who was on the expedi- 
tion. Drake lost one ship in the great storm and was de- 
serted by another. 

Only one was left at last to work its way in better 
weather up the west coast of South America. Here his 
experience was very different from Magellan's. The 
Portuguese had cut westward across the empty ocean. ^ 
The Englishman hugged the coast northward, for he was 
after treasure and Spanish trouble. He found the wild 
coast planted with Spanish towns and met Spanish ships 
carrying treasure from one to another. 

"In two barks here, " says the journal, ''we found some 
forty and odd bars of silver." In another they found 
"some fruits, conserves, sugars, meal, and other victuals, 
and ... a certain quantity of jewels and precious 
stones, thirteen chests of royals of plate, eighty pound 
weight in gold, twenty-six ton of uncoined silver, two 
very fair gilt silver drinking bowls, and the like trifles." 
Once when they landed they "met a Spaniard with an 
Indian boy driving eight lambs or Peruvian sheep ; each 
sheep bore two leathern bags, and in each bag was fifty 
pound weight of refined silver, in the whole eight hundred 
weight." 

After filling their ship with all this Spanish treasure the 
Englishmen, because the love of exploring was on them, 
sailed far north along the shore, past our California and 
even up to our state of Washington. Somewhere on our 
coast they camped for many days and had much converse 
with the Indians, who were, the journal says, "a people 
of a tractable, free, and loving nature, without guile or 
treachery." 

The English visited their houses, put ointment on 
their wounds and sores, preached to them, fed them. 

» See page 372. 



400 BEGINNINGS OP OUR OWN TIMES 

"Before we went from thence," the journal goes on, ''our 
general caused to be set up a monument of our being 
there, as also of her Majesty's and successors' right 
and title to that kingdom, namely, a plate of brass, fast 
nailed to a great and firm post, whereon is engraven 
her Grace's name and the day and year of our arrival 
there." 

The navigators hoped to find a sea passage through the 
land toward the east and home, but finding none and 
meeting cold weather, they at last turned across the 
sea toward Asia. It was a long and perilous voyage, 
threading a way through the Spice Islands amid storms 
and reefs and peoples friendly and unfriendly. But at, 
last the "master thief of the unknown world" reached 
home. His worn-out ship, the Golden Hinde, was hauled 
up on the English shore, a banquet was given on board 
with all the great men of England doing honor to the bold 
adventurer. Queen Elizabeth herself was there, and 
afterward, on the deck, knighted the daredevil sailor and 
made him Sir Francis Drake. 

But this trip around the world was only the beginning 
of his adventures. Once with a fleet of twenty-three ships 
he started south to ''singe the king of Spain's beard." 
He ran into the great harbor of Cadiz, where lay a forest 
of merchant ships with ten great war galleys. With his 
little swift vessels he dipped under the very noses of the 
tall galleys, darted past them, poured shots into their 
sides, sunk more than twenty vessels, captured four 
loaded with provisions, slipped out of the narrow harbor 
mouth, and spent the night at anchor under the very 
eyes of the town. For a month more he swept the seas 
and the coasts of Spain, capturing forts, sinking or taking 
forty large ships and a hundred small ones. 

Spain, of course, could not permit these insults to her 



SPAIN AND HER RIVALS 401 

power. She wanted, moreover, to punish England for 
having helped the Dutch. During all Holland's 
brave fight the Uttle country had looked to England 
England for aid, partly because she, too, was ^^^ 
Protestant and partly because she, too, hated 
and feared Spain. In answer English merchants sent 
two million dollars or more to William, and little parties of 
Englishmen ''stole across the channel" to enter his army. 
But Queen Elizabeth dreaded to do anything that should 
push King Philip into war with her, so she hesitated long 
whether to send troops to aid the Dutch, but at last she 
did it. A year after the great William died one of her 
favorite earls sailed from England with six thousand 
soldiers, and for two years he was in Holland acting for 
some of the time as governor general. 

King Philip had a dream of adding England to his 
realm and of forcing its people to become Catholic. He 
pretended to have some shadowy claim to its 
crown. So in 1588 a great Spanish fleet set ".^^.?,^'^" 

. ., 1 . vincible 

sail tor England, the Invmcible Armada, the Armada" 
Spaniards called it, for it was the greatest fleet 
ever yet assembled. There were one hundred thirty 
ships, the largest ships of the world, with great sails to 
catch the wind and sweeping oars to aid them. Hakluyt, 
an English writer of the time, describes the fleet. He says 
that the galleons "were of an huge bigness and very stately 
built ... so high that they resembled great castles. . . . 
The upper works of the said galleons was of thickness and 
strength to bear off musket shot. The lower works and the 
timbers thereof were out of measure strong, being framed 
of planks or ribs four or five foot in thickness, in so much 
that no bullets could pierce them. . . . The galleasses 
[the largest ships of all] were of such bigness that they 
contained within them chambers, chapels, turrets, pulpits 



402 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

and other commodities of great houses. The galleasses 
were rowed with great oars, there being in each one of 
them three hundred slaves for the same purpose. ... All 
these [ships] . . . were furnished and beautified with 
trumpets, streamers, banners, warlike ensigns and other 
such like ornaments." 

On board the fleet were thirty thousand fighting men, 
and every man was filled with love of Holy Church and 
hatred of heretic England and of insulting English sailors. 
It was another crusade. At the masthead of the admiral's 
ship floated a banner with pictures of Christ and Mary, 
His mother, and the motto on it read, ''Rise, O God, and 
vindicate your cause." Before the battle began, mass was 
said on every Spanish ship, and every Spanish sailor 
prayed for victory against the enemies of his country 
and his church. But the Englishmen, too, were fighting 
a religious war. ''God give us grace to depend upon 
Him," wrote Drake in a letter just before the fight, "so 
we shall not doubt victory, for our cause is good." 

The great fleet sailed northward to land her army on the 

shores of England, but the English sea dogs flew out at her. 

Their ships were of a build quite different from 

the Spanish. They were small, low, and light, 

without oars, but with better placed sails. The great 

Spanish galleons were like wallowing whales, the English 

vessels like skimming swallows. Two of them, indeed, 

were named by their proud owners Swallow and Antelope. 

These swift little ships could repeat the savage play 

of Drake in the harbor of Cadiz. As Hakluyt says, 

"Albeit there were many excellent and warlike ships 

in the English fleet, yet scarce were there twenty-two 

or twenty-three among them all which matched ninety 

of the Spanish ships in bigness or could conveniently 

assault them. Wherefore the English ships, using their 




[403] 



404 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

. . . nimble steerage, whereby they could turn and 
wield themselves with the wind which way they listed, 
came oftentimes very near upon the Spaniards and 
charged them so sore that now and then they were but a 
pike's length asunder." 

The men who sailed those seaworthy ships were sons 
of the sea. Only fifty-three of the hundred ninety-seven 
ships belonged to the government ; the others were Owned 
by the merchants and fishermen who for years had been 
learning their lessons of seamanship and daring in plunder- 
ing Spain. It was old privateers who fought and won the 
nine-day fight, with its retreats and advances, its roar of 
cannon, its sinking ships, its fire ships drifting by night 
into the Spanish fleet. 

To end all came a great storm that wrecked the re- 
treating Spanish vessels, so that, says Hakluyt, "of one 
hundred thirty ships which set sail out of Portugal, there 
returned home fifty-three only, small and great." After 
the victory, there were solemn festivals in England and 
prayers in the churches. Queen Elizabeth rode through 
London, down streets hung with blue cloth and decked 
with captured Spanish banners. 

The defeat of the Invincible Armada was an inspiration 
to England. "The sea is ours," Englishmen thought; 
"why not the shores of it?" The world was 
rospen y ^^^^ ^^ them, trade prospered. In order to feed 
that trade, manufactures flourished at home, money 
poured into England, and life became more gorgeous for 
the nobles and more comfortable for the commoners. 
Noblemen "wore a manor on their backs," and rich 
merchants dressed like nobles, in gay velvets and silks, 
with slashes and puffs. New houses were built with 
windows of glass, so that the sunshine flooded in where 
in the old days had been unhealthful gloom. Even poor 




, 405 



4o6 



BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 



men's houses began to have chimneys and clean air and 
pleasant fireplaces. Well-made chairs and bedsteads 

began to take the place 
of the rude benches and 
straw pallets of earlier 
days. There were com- 
fortable pillows on many 
a common man's bed, 
and even carpets on his 
floor. On his table were 
dishes of pewter or silver 
instead of the old wooden 
bowls, and good fresh 
meat oftener took the 
place of the cheap salt 
fish. 

Men's minds, too, be- 
came more active. Young 
nobles and com- 
moners, alike, 
flocked to the universi- 
ties, and grammar schools 
were numerous. English- 
men went everywhere, 
especially to the great 
cities of France and Italy, 
and brought back books 
and learning and new 
ideas. The science of 
astronomy was being re- 
made. For hundreds of 
years men had thought of the earth as the center of the 
universe, with sun, moon, and stars swinging about it. 
Now, however, in 1543, a Polish scientist, Copernicus, 




Learning 



God's Providence House 

Built in 1652, it still copies the style of 
Queen Elizabeth's time. It was given its 
name because its inhabitants escaped the 
plague. Before the days of numbering 
houses, names for them were convenient 




.407, 



4o8 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

declared the sun to be the center. Some years later the 
Italian Galileo perfected the telescope, and after that 
hardly a month passed without a new discovery in the 
heavens. Medical discoveries also were being made, and 
in 1628 Harvey, an Enghsh surgeon, found out how the 
blood circulates through the body. 

With so much happening in war, industry, science, and 

exploration men were driven to writing to express the ideas 

teeming in their minds. Printing presses be- 

Literature ^ . j fu , j 

came common m lingland, and the land was 
flooded with histories, books of travel, sermons, stories, 
essays, plays, poetry. Some one says that "England 
became a nest of singing birds." Learning now counted 
as much as noble blood. Queen Elizabeth's wise ministers 
were not great nobles but learned commoners. The poets 
to whom all England listened were many of them sons of 
cobblers or tradesmen. Shakespeare, the greatest of them 
all, was a tanner's son. Noblemen now had more to 
think of than in the old days when war had been their 
only occupation. Courtiers talked of poetry and philoso- 
phy and geography. Many of them could write a poem 
as well as dance a minuet or swing a sword or sail a ship. 

England in America 

One of the great men of the time was Richard Hakluyt. 
He did much to make Englishmen love the sea, to make 
England proud of her sailors, to encourage his 
countrymen to colonize America. He was 
a professor of geography and map-making in Oxford 
University. Of himself he says : "I read over whatsoever 
printed or written discoveries and voyages I found extant, 
either in the Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portugal, 
French or English languages. I grew familiarly ac- 
quainted with the chiefest captains at sea, the greatest 



SPAIN AND HER RIVALS 409 

merchants, and the best mariners of our nation." He de- 
termined to make the noble story of EngUsh seamanship 
known to the world. He printed all the stories he could 
find of English exploration. He called attention to 
Cabot's early discovery^ and urged England to take North 
America for her own. He wrote a description of Vir- 
ginia and an appeal to his countrymen to colonize it.^ 
It seemed to him that God had reserved the new lands 
north^of Florida for the English to occupy, while the 
Spanish might hold those to the south. 

A few years before the Armada fight a noble English 
gentleman, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, determined ''to dis- 
cover, possess, and to reduce unto the service 
of God and Christian piety," as Hakluyt says, ^^^"°'" 
''those remote and heathen countries of America Gilbert 
not actually possessed by Christians and most 
rightly [belonging] unto the crown of England," because 
of Cabot's discovery. "With the help of interested 
friends he fitted out two expeditions. On the second 
he sailed to Newfoundland and set up on its shores the 
arms of England. But he was a man "of no good hap 
by sea," and on the return voyage in a great storm he 
went down with one of his ships, saying, "We are as near 
to heaven by sea as by land." 

Gilbert's half brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, was unwilHng 
to let Gilbert's work be quite swallowed by the sea. He 
was a many-sided man. He had been on 
voyages with Drake. He had gained Queen rV*^ ^ 
Elizabeth's favor by gay and courtly behavior. 
He had played his part in war. He had written poems, 

1 See page 368. 

* It is in his greatest book, "The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffics, 
and Discoveries of the English Nation," that we read of the work of Drake, 
Cabot, Gilbert, Raleigh, and many others, and learn much of what we know 
about their voyages. 



4IO 



BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 



and had gained great wealth. After Gilbert's death 
Raleigh sent three parties in different years to make 
settlements in America. All the attempts were sad 
failures. On the little island of Roanoke in Pamlico Sound 
the first party of about two hundred settlers landed in 

the summer of 1585 and 
spent a winter harassed 
with Indian troubles and 
fear of starvation: Sir 
Francis Drake passed 
that way in the next 
summer, after one of his 
raids on Spanish America, 
and the distressed party 
gladly left the wilderness 
and returned with him to 
England. 

They had scarcely gone 
before relief ships came 
from Raleigh and left 
provisions and a party 
of fifteen men. The next 
year another party of 
settlers came to the island 
but found no trace of the 
fifteen men — a sad hint. 
This new party landed, 
and their ships sailed 
away to get more provisions. They planned to return 
in a few months, but meantime the Armada fight was 
threatening, England needed every ship, men had no 
time to think of America. For four years the little com- 
pany of Englishmen were alone in the wilderness, cut off 
from the world and at the mercy of the Indians. When 



Vj^flT/^ /^ 


^^^/F \ B Tgy.^H^^^fcK>jM 


^'^T ^^^PUm. 


3^®-v 




^jS' ''<'ii)iiUf|ni^^kf ^1^ 




■ ^t^^ ^^ 




lk>^ 




mf] 




rlj 



An Indian of Virginia 

From the water-color drawing by John 
White of Raleigh's expedition of 1585 



SPAIN AND HER RIVALS 



411 



at last a relief party did come, they found only ruins of 
houses, a deserted fort, broken chests, discarded tools, 
all overgrown with grass. The settlers had disappeared, 
and the Indians would tell no tales. Thus in sorrow and 
disaster began the English settlements in America. But 
Englishmen were not to be discouraged. Other expeditions 
came, and in 1607 Jamestown was successfully founded, the 
first permanent settlement of England in the new world. 

In those early years men came for commerce, and they 
got from the king permission to trade, just as merchants 
did who wished to buy and sell in the cities of Europe.^ 
But in order to get the riches of this new country. English- 
men had to build houses, work the ground, cut the timber, 
trap the fur-bearing animals. They needed to own land 
and build towns. The land belonged to the English king. 
Therefore traders going there and colonists settling there 
must get his consent. 

So there grew up the custom of chartering companies 
for trading and colonizing. A number of men would 
make plans to form a company for settling and 
trading in America ; each member would furnish „ 
Sb certain amount of money and would expect in 
return a certain amount of the profits. After their plan 
was made they would present themselves to the king. If 
he favored the idea, he would give them a signed per- 
mission, called a patent. In this patent he gave tracts 
of land to the company. He also laid down rules for its 
governing ; for these settlers across the ocean were still 
his subjects, and he considered it his duty to protect them. 

Queen Elizabeth had given such patents to many com- 
panies desiring to trade and settle in different parts of 
the old world. There was the Russia Company, the 
Cathay or China Company, the Baltic Company, the 

1 See page 336. 



412 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 




The Town of New Amsterdam, or New York 
Notice the cannon, the stockade, the Dutch windmill 

Turkey Company, the Morocco Company, the Africa 
Company, the East India Company. The kings who 
followed Elizabeth granted charters to trade in America 
to the Newfoundland Company, the Bermuda Company, 
the Plymouth Company, the New England Company, the 
Massachusetts Bay Company, the Hudson Bay Company. 

England's Rivals in the New World 

In the meantime Holland and France were doing the 
same thing — all picking plums from Spain's tree in 
America, all claiming that Spain's share lay to 
^^® . the south, all exploring the northern coast and 
Canada claiming what was found, all chartering com- 
panies, all trying to make settlements and to 
hold their new-found lands. The French began slowly 
to work their way up the St. Lawrence River, exploring its 
banks and the forests that led back from them, making 
friends with the natives, trading for furs, using the 
Indians as guides to the great inland seas of which they 
told. By the year 1615 they had gone on foot or 
canoe as far as Lake Ontario and had tramped across 
the country to the eastern shore of Lake Huron. For 
the next seventy years the wonderful waterway of the 



SPAIN AND HER RIVALS 



413 




As It Appeared in 1673 

Compare this Dutch town with the Spanish San Domingo nearly a century 
earlier pictured on page 383 



Great Lakes and their connecting rivers was the road that 
led Frenchmen on and on into the western wilderness, 
planting forts and missions and trading posts all the way 
from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the heart of the 
Mississippi Valley. By 1615, hovy^ever, they had made 
only two settlements, one in Nova Scotia and one at 
Quebec. 

South of the French country the Dutch founded a 
colony at the mouth of the Hudson, and England was 
beginning settlements further south. Thirteen j^^^^^^ ^^^^ 
years after her colony at Jamestown she planted English 
another at Plymouth. These were coast Settle- 
towns, looking back to England across the sea. ^^^ ^ 
It was long before Englishmen reached the mountains far 
behind them and began to thread their way across into 
the unknown wilderness beyond. 

South of Virginia, where Jamestown was, all the 
western world, except for Brazil, was Spain's. She 
was little interested, however, in the country Spanish 
north of Mexico, and except for Santa Fe in the Towns 
distant southwest, she had planted only one colony there, 
St. Augustine in Florida. 



414 



BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 



By 1623, then, there were in the country which was 
some time to be EngUsh-speaking America, seven towns — 
two French, two EngUsh, one Dutch, and two Spanish. 




Old Spanish Gate at St. Augustine 
It is still standing. St. Augustine is the only walled town in the United States 

They were all mere villages with a few log houses, a little 
log fort to protect the settlers' bodies, and a log church 
to guard their souls. They were surrounded by Indians 
whom they did not trust. They lacked most of the 
things that they had been used to have in the old countries 
of Europe. Most of them were homesick much of the 
time, I have no doubt, eagerly waiting for a visiting ship 
to bring them a few letters from home, a few delicacies 
to eat and drink, a pretty bonnet or a bright ribbon, — 
something to make them forget for a little that they were 
dropped down in the wilderness all but cut off from 
civilization. Upon the few ships they were dependent, 
too, for the many necessities of life — for flour and ham, 
for sugar and cloth, for iron and paper and tools and 
furniture. 

Six of these towns were on the eastern edge of a conti- 
nent whose great size nobody had guessed. The Spaniards 



SPAIN AND HER RIVALS 415 

had plunged a finger, one might say, into its southern edge 
by making their adventurous trip through our southwest- 
ern states.^ Drake had touched the coast of Cahfornia. 
France had pushed westward a thousand miles and was 
hoping that every step would bring her out to the Pacific, 
to a waterway through America to Asia. The Dutch and 
the Enghsh knew only a narrow fringe on the east coast. 
The great mass of the continent white men had never seen. 

Yet the path to America had been made, and the door 
had been opened. Men found its soil as rich as that of 
Europe, its harbors as safe, its forests as beautiful, its 
climate as pleasant. To men in Europe who wanted to 
make money it offered its timber, its furs, its mines. To 
farmers who found land hard to get in Europe it opened 
broad, empty acres. To the Huguenots of France who 
found their Catholic rulers unfriendly and harsh, to 
Quakers and Puritans and Presbyterians and Catholics 
of England who found themselves annoyed and oppressed 
by the Episcopalian Church, the far-distant and unpeopled 
America offered an opportunity to worship according 
to their own consciences. 

With the settling of America there had opened a new 
chapter in man's history. We might call it "New Homes 
in a New World." Into these new homes men carried 
as precious heirlooms the great books, the religion, the 
science, the art, the laws, the ideals of freedom and of 
honor, that all the ages had been toiling over. Out of 
these things Americans and their cousins across the 
Atlantic have gone on making new history. The tale 
is not finished. We are still making it to-day. After 
us our descendants will continue it. It is, perhaps, a 
never ending tale, and chapter rises out of chapter, age 
rests upon age, as do the stories of a lofty building. 

1 See page 380. 



4i6 BEGINNINGS OF OUR OWN TIMES 

1. What connection do you see between trade and exploration? 
Between trade and the spread of civiHzation? 2. How do you think 
civihzed people, entering a new country, ought to treat the uncivilized 
natives? 3. Find out when the different states of South America 
became independent of Spain. 4. Did Spain succeed in keeping her 
American colonies Spanish and Catholic? From encyclopedias or 
Shepherd's Latin America find what the speech and the religion of 
Mexico, the larger islands of the West Indies, and the South American 
states are to-day. 5. What was the difference between the aims of 
Magellan and those of Drake? Which man do you admire more? 
6. Read " The Revenge," by Tennyson, a poem about a brave fight 
between a little English ship and fifty-three Spanish galleons. The 
Revenge had once been Drake's ship. 7. Before 1600 what countries 
claimed land in North America? On what did they found their 
claims ? 



1. The story told by this book covers 2000 years and more. Dur- 
ing that time what very great changes occurred in the world ? What 
did the men of 1600 know that the Greeks did not know? What could 
they do that the Greeks could not do? What have we learned since 
1600? 2. Who are the great men of this book ? Why are they great ? 
3. What countries of Europe had not developed very far in unity and 
strength in 1600? Why do you think the northern countries were 
slower in developing than the southern ? 4. Imagine Greece, Rome, 
France, Germany, England, Spain, Portugal, Florence, Venice, each 
telling what she had done for the world up to 1600. Write their 
speeches. Costume members of the class to represent the various 
countries and let them walk on and make these speeches. Study the 
pictures of this book for the costume. 



IMPORTANT DATES 



GR££CG 

(The Greeks themselves counted time in Olympiads. Modern men have 
figured out that the first Olympic game-festival was held in 776 b.c. There 
were four years in this first Olympiad, until the second festival began the 
second Olympiad. According to the Greek reckoning, the battle of Mara- 
thon took place in the third year of the 72nd Olympiad. But many things 
happened before the first Olympiad. These the Greeks could not date ac- 
curately. The events from which grew the legends of the Trojan war, the 
voyages of Odysseus and the Argonauts, and the founding of all the great 
cities on the islands of the ^Egean and the mainland of Greece, are some of 
these early happenings.) 

B.C. 785 First Greek settlement on the Black Sea. 

776 Beginning of first Olympiad. 

736 First settlement in Sicily. 

600 Founding of Massilia. 

490 Battle of Marathon. 

480 Battles of Thermopylae and Salamis. 

479 Battle of Platsea. 

438 Completion of Parthenon. 

404 Humbling of Athens by Sparta. 

371 Humbling of Sparta by Thebes. 

338 Philip's conquest of Greece. 

336 Alexander becomes king. 

334 Alexander's first battle in Asia. 

332 Founding of Alexandria, 

323 Death of Alexander. 

ROME 

(The Romans counted time from the founding of Rome. That hap- 
pened so far back that they did not know accurately when it was. But 
the date that they set is, according to our way of counting time, 753 B.C. 
Caesar became sole ruler of Rome the 709th year after the founding of the 
city. That is the way the Romans expressed it. This means that 708 
years had passed between the founding of Rome and the victory of Caesar. 
By subtracting 708 from 753 we find that according to our method of mark- 
ing dates, Caesar became ruler in 45 b.c.) 

B.C. 753 Supposed founding of Rome. 

509 (?) Kings expelled. 

266 Rome mistress of Italy. 

264-241 First Punic war. 

218-201 Second Punic war. 

167 Macedon (Greece) conquered. 

149-146 Third Punic war. 

146 Carthage and Corinth destroyed. 

66-63 Pompey conquers Asia Minor and Syria. 

58-50 Caesar conquers Gaul. 

49-45 Caesar fights civil war and becomes sole ruler. 

A.D. 85 Britain is conquered. 

211 All freemen in the empire are given citizenship. 

313 Constantine gives Christians privilege of worship. 

417 



4i8 



IMPORTANT DATES 



GERMAN CONQUESTS 

A.D. 376 West Goths cross the Danube into the Roman empire. 

378 West Goths defeat the emperor at Adrianople. 

395 Alaric king of the Goths. They plunder Greece. 

410 Alaric sacks Rome. 

415 Adolf and the West Goths settle in Gaul and Spain. 

429 Vandals conquer Roman Africa and set up kingdom. 

486 Clovis and the Franks begin conquest of Gaul. 

493 East Goths rule Italy. 

496 Franks under Clovis become Christian. 



A.D. 732 

771 
800 

803 
814 



911 

936 

1100-1250 

1212-1250 

1254-1273 

1273 

1370 

1619 

1625 

1620-1648 



GERMANY AND FRANCE 

Franks defeat Moors and prevent invasion of 
Frankland. 

Charlemagne king of the Franks. 

Charlemagne emperor of Holy Roman Em- 
pire. 

Saxony conquered. 

Charlemagne dies . Empire begins to crumble. 

Germany 

Feudal dukes choose one of themselves king. 

King is usually emperor also. 
Emperors become strong. 
Growth of free cities. 
Frederick II king. 
Empire falls into confusion. 
Austria becomes strong under Hapsburgs. 
Greatest strength of Hanseatic League. 
Charles V is chosen emperor. 
Peasants' war against nobles and churchmen. 
Religious troubles and wars. 



France 

911 Northmen settle in Normandy. 

987 Feudal lords choose Hugh Capet king. 

1100-1250 Growth of free cities. 

1226-1270 St. Louis (Louis IX) rules. 

1337-1453 Hundred Years' War with England. 

1358 Peasant uprising. 

1494 Italian wars begin. 

1572 Massacre of Huguenots (St. Bartholomew's 

Day). 
1689 Henry IV, a Protestant, becomes king; 

later turns Catholic, but grants freedom 

of worship to Protestants. 



IMPORTANT DATES 



419 



ENGLAND 

A.D. 411 Roman legions recalled from Britain. 

449 Angles and Saxons begin to conquer Britain. 

829 Egbert becomes overlord of all England. 

871-901 Alfred king. 
793( ? )-1016 Danes often invade England. 

1016-1042 Danish kings rule England. 

1066 Norman William conquers England. 

1100-1250 Growth of free cities. 

1100-1350 Rise and growth of merchant and craft gilds. 

1154-1189 Henry II makes good laws. 

1215 John compelled to grant Magna Charta. 

1337-1453 Hundred Years' War with France. 

1362 ( ?) Piers Plowman written. 

1381 Great Revolt of peasants. 

1485 Tudor kings begin to build up strong na- 
tional power. 

1658-1603 Elizabeth queen (the last Tudor). 

1564-1616 Shakespeare lives. 

1588 England defeats the Spanish Armada. 

SPAIN, PORTUGAL, AND THE NETHERLANDS 
A.D. 7li Mohammedans begin to conquer Spain. 

Christian kingdoms slowly grow in northern 
mountains. 

1140 Portugal becomes independent. 

1248-1354 Alhambra built. High state of Moorish civil- 
ization. 

1469 Christian Spain united by marriage of Fer- 

dinand and Isabella. 

1492 Ferdinand and Isabella conquer the Moors. 

1502 First negro slaves sent to America. 

1516 Hapsburg Charles (later Emperor Charles 

V) becomes king of Spain. 

1556-1598 Philip II king of Spain. 

1564 Spanish war with Netherlands begins. 

1674 Siege of Leyden. 

1580-1640 Kings of Spain rule Portugal. 

1681 Dutch declaration of independence. 

1584 William of Orange assassinated. 



420 



IMPORTANT DATES 





THE EAST 


A.D. 622 


Mohammed flees from Mecca. 


630 


Mohammed conquers Arabia. 


634-644 


Arabian Mohammedans conquer Sja-ia, 




Persia, Egypt. 


708 


Arabian Mohammedans conquer northern 




Africa. 


786 


Arabian empire at height. Haroun-al- 




Raschid cahph. 


1040 


Seljuk Turks (Mohammedans) begin to con- 




quer western Asia. 


1096 


Crusades begin. 


1099-1187 


Kingdom of Jerusalem maintained by 




crusaders. 


1237 


Mongols begin conquest of Russia. 


1259-1294 


Kublai Khan emperor of China. 


1300-1450 


Ottoman Turks found an empire in Asia 




Minor and southeastern Europe. (Modern 




Turks are Ottomans.) 


1453 


Ottoman Turks conquer Constantinople, last 




remnant of Roman empire. 


1500-1617 


Ottoman Turks conquer Syria and Egypt. 




THE CHURCH 


A.D. 440 


Leo I the first great pope. 


526( ?) 


St. Benedict founds Benedictine order of 




monks. 


597 


St. Augustine begins conversion of England. 


716 


Boniface begins work among Germans. 


1075 


Struggle between popes and emperors begins. 


1096-1270 


Crusades. 


1200-1300 


Many universities founded. 


1210 


St. Francis founds Franciscan order of 




preaching friars. 


1215 


St. Dominic founds Dominican order. 


1466 


First German Bible printed. 


1480 


Spanish Inquisition established. 


1517 


Luther in Germany begins Protestant Re- 
volt. 
Calvin preaches Protestantism in France. 


1532 


1534 


English church under Henry VIII breaks 




away from pope. 


1539 


First English Bible printed. 


1540 


St. Ignatius Loyola founds order of Jesuits to 




counteract Protestantism. 


1545-1563 


Catholic Church holds Council of Trent, 




restates creed, reforms practices. 



IMPORTANT DATES 



421 



INVENTIONS, 


EXPLORATIONS, AND SETTLEMENTS 


A.D. 860 (?) 


Norsemen discover Iceland. 


985 




Norsemen discover Greenland. 


1000 




Norsemen land on shore of North America. 


1271- 


1295 


Marco Polo's travels in Asia and life in China. 


1320-1340 


Europe begins use of gunpowder. 


1350-1450 


Paper becomes common. 


1419 




Prince Henry begins his explorations. 


1435 




Cape Bojador is passed. 


1445- 


1464 


Printing with movable type. 


1472 




First sailors' almanac is published, showing 
height of sun and stars at different times 
in various places. 


1480 




Astrolabe used at sea for finding latitudes. 


1487 




Diaz rounds the Cape of Good Hope. 


1492 




Columbus discovers America. 


1497 




Da Gama sails to India. 

Cabot discovers North America. 


1613 




Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean. 


1519- 


1621 


Cortez conquers Mexico. 


1519- 


1522 


Magellan's ship sails around the world. 


1531- 


1633 


Pizarro conquers Peru. 


1634 




Cartier discovers the St. Lawrence River. 


1641 




De Soto discovers the Mississippi River. 


1643 




Copernicus publishes a book giving a new 
theory of astronomy. 


1664 




Coligny sends a Huguenot colony to Florida. 


1665 




Spanish found St. Augustine in Florida. 
Huguenot settlement destroyed by Spaniards. 


1577- 


1680 


Drake sails around the world. 


1582 




Hakluyt publishes first book of voyages. 


1683 




Sir Humphrey Gilbert's last voyage. 


1686 




Raleigh's company makes first English settle- 
ment in America. 


1603- 


1608 


Champlain makes voyages to Canada. 


1607 




Jamestown founded by England. 


1608 




Quebec founded by France. 


1609 




Gahleo perfects telescope. 

Hudson discovers the Hudson River. 


1614 




Dutch trading posts on the Hudson. 


1616 




French as far west as Lake Huron. 


1620 




Plymouth founded by England. 


1623 




New Amsterdam founded by Holland. 



INDEX 



Fronunciation according to Webster's New International Dictionary. 

Key : a, as in ale; S,, as in Sm ; a, as in fi'-nal ; ii, as in arm ; a, as in ask ; d, as 
in so'-fd ; e, as in eve ; e, as in e-veut' ; g, as in 6nd ; i, as in uo'-vgl ; 5, as in ev'-er ; 
g, as in go ; i, as in ice ; i, as in ill ; 6, as in old ; o, as in to-bac'-co; 6, as in lord ; 
6, as in not ; d, as in c(Tn-nect' ; oo, as in food ; do, as in foot ; th, as in thin ; u, as 
in use ; li, as in u-nite' ; ft, as in firn or her ; u, as in tip ; u, as in cir'-c»«s ; n, as in 
French boN. 



Acropolis (d-krop'-o-lis), 38-40. 

Adolf (a'-dolf), 147-148. 

Adrianople (ad'-ri-dn-o'-p'l), 145. 

^gina (e-ji'-nd), 38. 

^schylus (es'-ki-lus), quoted, 58-59. 

Africa, Greeks visit, 12, 18, 43 ; 
Romans conquer, 114, 325; Moors 
conquer, 326, 379 ; map of, 343 ; 
Portuguese voyages around coast, 
349-360, 374, 37J, 381-382, 393- 

Agricola (d-grik'-6-ld), 120-121, 122. 

Agriculture, German, 142 ; medieval, 
250-253. 

Alaric (3,l'-d-rik) , 146-147. 

Alexander, 62-69. 

Alexandria, 69-70, 128, 341, 344. 

Alfred, 187-192. 

Alva (al'-va), duke of, 390, 391. 

America, voyages to, 159,367, 369,371, 
375; Spaniards in, 379-385; Hu- 
guenots in, 387-388 ; Dutch in, 393 ; 
English in, 394-400, 408-415. 

Angelo (an'je-lo), Michael, 273. 

Angles, 1 81 -1 84. 

Anglo-Saxons, 1 81-192, 199-200. 

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, quoted, 182- 
184, 194-196, 197-198. 

Aphrodite (af-ro-di'-te), 27, 28. 

Apollo (d-p61'-o), 21. 

Apphianus (ap-fi-a'-niis) , 132-133. 

Apprentice (d-pren'-tis), 265. 

Arabia, 43, 286, 322-323. 



Argonauts (ar'-go-nots), 3-4, 14. 

Aristotle (ar'-is-tot'-'l), 67. 

Armada (ar-ma'-da), 401-405. 

Armor, Greek, picture, 58 ; Roman, 
106-107 ; German, 143 ; Norman, 
pictures, 194-196 ; medieval, 231- 
232 ; pictures, 226, 229, 237, 238, 
248. 

Army, Persian, 56; Roman, 84, 86, 
105-110; Charlemagne's, 153-154. 

Artemis (ar'-t^-mis), 21. 

Arthur, King, 239. 

Assembly, 51, 154, 185-187. 

Asser, quoted, 187-188, 190, 191-192. 

Assyria (d-sir'-i-d), pictures, 2, 3. 

Astrolabe (as'-tro-lab), 344. 

Athene (d-the'-ne), 21, 23, 24 ; pic- 
ture, 37. 

Athens, 23, 38-45, 51-52, 59-61, 159, 
271. 

Augur (o'-gfa-), 82. 

Augustine, 297. 

Augustus, 129. 

Azores (d-zorz'), 355. 

Balboa (bal-bo'-a), 379. 
Ball, John, 259-262. 
Banquet, 244 ; picture, 246. 
Baptistry, 273 ; pictures, 269, 274. 
Baths, 119, 121. 

Battering ram, 102, 227 ; pictures, 
104, 226. 



423 



424 



INDEX 



Bavaria, 164. 

Bede (bed), quoted, 297. 

Bebaim (ba'-biin), maps, 357, 362. 

Belgium, 118, 150. 

Benedict (beu'-^-dikt), 302-303 ; rule 

of, 303-307, 312. 
Beowulf (ba'-6-woolf), 181-182. 
Bergen (bur'-gen), 285. 
Bisbop, 299. 

Black Sea, 4, 14, 16, 43, 128, 329. 
Bojador (boj-d-dor'), Cape, 353, 
Boniface (bon'-i-fas), 298. 
Books, 308-311 ; pictures, 46-47, 122. 
Brazil, 369, 370, 385. 
Britain (brit'-'n), 8, 17, 43, 120-122, 

128, 181-184. 
Bruges (broo'jez), 285. 

Cabot, Jobn, 368. 

Caesar (se'zdr), Julius, 99-110, 115, 

118, 120. 
California, 399, 415 ; picture, 314. 
Calvin, John, 338, 387. 
Camp, Roman, 107-109. 
Canada, 368. 
Cannae (kan'-e), 94. 
Cape of Good Hope, 356, 359, 370, 374. 
Capetians (kd-pe'-shdnz), 175. 
Carthage, 8, 90-96, 98, 105. 
Cartier (kar'tya'), 377, 385, 388. 
Castle, 163, 217-227. 
Catapult (kat'-d-piilt), 101-102, 227 ; 

picture, 104. 
Cathedral, pic^wre, 301. 
Chalcis (kai'-sis), 38. 
Charlemagne (shar'-le-man), 151-157, 

163-164. 
Charles V, 385, 388 ; picture, 386. 
Charter, Great, 207-212. 
Chartered companies, 411-412. 
Charters, 204, 207-212. 
Chaucer (ch6'-ser), quoted, 233. 
China, 74, 287, 288, 328, 341, 346, 347- 

349,355,360,361,365,411. 
Chivalry, time of, 247-248. 
Christianity, beginning of, 128-135. 
Chronicles, 182, 311-312. 
Church councils, 300, 340. 



Cicero (sis'-er-6), quoted, 114. 

City, Greek, 38 ; Roman, 78 ; Eng- 

lish, 202-204 ; pictures, 269, 331. 
Clovis (^klo'-vis), 149-15 1. 
Coligny (ko'-len'-ye'), 387. 
Colonies, Greek, 13-19; in America, 

380-385, 409-415- 
Columbus, 360-368, 369, 385. 
Compass, 342. 
Constantine (kon'-stdn-tin), 134-135, 

145, 325- 
Constantinople, 145, 290, 325, 331, 

332, 337, 346. 

Consuls, 84. 

Copernicus (ko-piir'-ni-kws), 406. 

Corinth (kor'-inth), 38, 98, 130. 

Cortez (kor'-tez), 379. 

Costume, Assyrian, pictures, 2, 3 ; 
Greek, pictures, 20, 24, 33, 35, 37, 
41, 46, 47; Persisin, pictures, 53, 
55, 56, 66 ; Roman, 78 ; pictures, 
80, 81, 83, 85, 134; German, 141- 
142; pictures, 143, 150; Saxon, 
182; medieval, 156, 244-245; pic- 
tures, 178, 202, 203, 206, 211, 259, 
261, 266, 270, 272, 279, 289, 292, 
294, 309 ; religious, pictures, 165, 
296, 299, 304, 305, 306, 308. See 
also Armor. 

Counts, 153, 154, 174. 

Crossbow, 234. 

Croyland, monastery of, 313. 

Crusades, 329-333. 

Da Gama, see Gama. 

Danes, 190-192, 298. 

Darien (da'-ri-en'), 379, 398. 

Delian (de'-li-«n). Confederacy, 59- 

61. 
Demeter (de-me'-ter), 21 ; picture, 

20. 
Denmark, 157, 158, 281, 339. 
De Soto, 380. 
Diaz (di'as), 356. 
Dionysus (di'-o-ni'-siis), 21, 39. 
Doge (doj), 291-293. 
Domain, 249. 
Doomsday Book, 197-198. 



INDEX 



425 



Drake, Francis, 396-400, 402,409, 415. 
Dukes, 163, 173, 174. 
Dutch, the, see Netherlands. 

Eannes, Gil, 353. 

East, the, 286-287 ; Rome's conquest 
of, 96-98 ; Portuguese empire in, 

359, 393- 

Egbert, 185. 

Egypt, 18, 43, 69, 97, 128. 

Einhard (m'-hart), quoted, 156. 

Elizabeth, Queen, 336, 396, 398, 400, 
401, 404, 408, 409, 411, 412; pic- 
tures, frontispiece, 407. 

Emperor, Roman, 115, 117; Holy 
Roman, 152, 162, 164-173. 

England, 181-212. 

Eratosthenes (er'-a-tos'-the-nez), 69. 

Etruria (e-troo'-ri-d), 76, 77, 88. 

Eusebius (u-se'-bi-its), quoted, 132- 

^?,2>^ 134-135- 
Excommunication (eks'-ko-mii-ni- 

ka'-shfm), 170. 
Exploration, Greek, 3-1 1 ; Viking, 

159 ; Portuguese, 349-360, 369 ; 

Spanish, 360-368, 369-375, 379-380; 

English, 368, 398-400 ; French, 377, 

412-413; Dutch, 393. 

Factories (trading), Greek, 12-13; 

Hanseatic, 285 ; Venetian, 290. 
Fairs, 288-290, 
Ferdinand, King, 363, 385. 
Feudalism (fu'-dal-iz'm), 214-217. 
Florence, 269-277, 290, 295. 
Florida, 380, 387, 409, 413. 
Fort Caroline, 387. 
Forum (fo'-riim), Roman, 79-80. 
France, 173-180, 375, 377, 385-388. 
Francis I, King, 377, 385. 
Francis, Saint, 316-317, 
Frankland, East, 161-163. 
Franklaud, West, 162, 173-174. 
Franks, 141, 148-151. 
Frederick II, 168-172, 281, 293. 
Froissart (froi'-sart), 237; quoted, 

258-262. 
Funeral, Roman, 86, 



Galileo (gal'-i-le'-6), 408. 

Gama, Vasco da, 356-359. 

Gauls, 12, 17; Csesar's war with, 
99-110; civilization of, 118-120; 
Goths conquer, 148 ; Franks con- 
quer, 149-150, 162. 

Genoa (jen'-o-a), 290, 361, 

Germans, 128, 1 41-144; missionaries 
among, 298. 

Germany, 163-173, 281, 284, 298. 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 409. 

Gild merchant, 263-264. 

Gilds, craft, 265-268; emblems of, 
275-276 ; changes in, 294-295 ; en- 
tertain pilgrims, 319. 

Golden Fleece, 3, 4, 14. 

Golden Hitide, 400. 

Gon5alves (g6n-sal'-vesh), 353-354. 

Goths, 141, 144-148. 

Greece, 2-73; Rome conquers, 97, 98, 
no, 128, 130, 136, 137-138- 

Greenland, 159. 

Guinea (gin'-i), 361. 

Gulf of Mexico, 380. 

Gunpowder, 247. 

Hakluyt (hak'-loot), 408-409; quoted, 
401-402, 404. 

Hamilcar (ha-mil'-kar), 92. 

Hannibal, 92-95. 

Hanseatic League (hSn'-se-at'-ik leg), 
281-285, 288-289, 393. 

Hapsburgs, 385. 

Harold, King, 194 ; picture, 195. 

Hastings, battle of, 194. 

Hawking, 240-241. 

Helleston, 204. 

Hengist, 182, 183. 

Henry II, of England, 200-202. 

Henry the Navigator, 350-355. 

Hephsestus (he-fes'-tws), 21. 

Herakles, 4. 

Hermes (hur'-mez), 21, 28-29; pic- 
tures, 28, 35. 

Herodotus, quoted, 8, 11, 12, 55, 59, 

74-75- 
Hestia (hes'-ti-d), 42. 
Holland, 150, 160, 392, 393, 401, 412, 



426 



INDEX 



Horatius, 88. 

Horsa, 182. 

House, Greek, 40, 42 ; Roman, 78 ; 

German, 142; medieval, 256, 264- 

265. 
Hudson, Henry, 393. 
Huguenots (hu'-ge-nots), 387, 415. 
Huns, 145, 161. 
Hunting, 239-240. 

Iceland, 159. 

India, 128, 286, 288, 355, 356-360. 

Inquisition, 339-340, 384-385, 388, 
390, 394- 

Isabella, Queen, 363. 

Italy, Greek colonization of, 12, 16; 
Rome conquers. 74-77 ; Hannibal 
enters, 93-95 ; Goths plunder, 147 ; 
Lombards in, 152, 171- 172; Flor- 
ence, 269 ; war over, 385. 

Jamestovs^n, 411, 413. 

Jason, 3-4. 

Jerusalem, 321-322, 330 ; picture, 331. 

Jesuit (jez'-u-Tt), 339, 340. 

Jesus, 129. 

John, King, 205-212. 

Joinville (zhwaN'-vel'), quoted, 176- 

177, 178. 
Justinian, 138. 

Knighting, 236-239. 

Kublai Khan (koo'-bll kan'), 347. 

Ladrone Islands (la-dron'), 373. 
Langland, William, 257. 
Langton, Stephen, 207. 
Latins, 12, 76. 

Launcelot (lan'-se-16t), 230, 232. 
Leonidas (le-6n'-I-das), 57. 
Leyden (li'-den), siege of, 391. 
Libraries, in Alexandria, 69 ; Charle- 
magne's, 156; of monasteries, 311. 
Lombards, 141, 152, 171-172. 
London, 285. 
Lorraine (lo-ran'), 164. 
Louis IX, 176-179, 317, 320. 
Luther, Martin, 338. 



Macedon (mas'-e-don), 19, 62,97, 9^, 

ISO- 
Magellan (ma-jel'-an), 369-375. 
Magna Grgecia (mag'-nd gre'-shi-d), 

17, 61, 77. 
Malory, quoted, 230, 232, 236, 238. 
Manor, 249-258. 
Maps, making of, 69, 343-344. 
Marathon, 54-55. 
Market-place, Greek, 42-43 ; Roman, 

78-79 ; English, 203 ; Florentine, 

270-271. 
Mars, 81. 

Marseilles (mar-salz'), 17. 
Martyrs, Christian, 132-134. 
Mas.silia, 17. 

Menendez (ma-nen'-dalh), 387-388. 
Mexico, 379, 380. 
Miletus (mi-le'-t«s), 14. 
Mines, 103, 227. 
Minstrels, 241-242. 
Missionaries, 130, 153, 187, 296- 

298. 
Mississippi River, 380, 413. 
Mohammed (mo-ham'-ed), 323-324. 
Monasteries, 300-316. 
Montauban, siege of (ni6n'-to-baN), 

224-227. 
Moors, 328, 351, 363. 
Moots, Anglo-Saxon, 185-187. 
Movable tower, 102-103. 
Mucins (mu'-shias), Caius (ka'yws). 



National states, 334-336. 

Neco (ne'ko), 354. 

Negroes, 354, 381-382, 384. 

Netherlands, 388-393. 

Newfoundland, 409. 

Non (non), Cape, 351, 353. 

Normandy, 192-193. 

Normans, 192-200. 

Northmen or Norsemen, 157-160, 

161. 
Norway, 157, 158, 159, 281, 284, 288, 

339- 
Novgorod (n6v'-g6-r6t), 285, 288, 289, 
290, 291. 



INDEX 



427 



Odess'a, 14. 

Odysseus (6-dis'-us), 4-5. 

Olympia, 29-34. 

Olympus, 20. 

Ostia (os'-tya), 98. 

Pacific Ocean, Balboa discovers, 379. 

Page, 234-235. 

Palestine (pal'-es-tin), 129, 326, 330. 

Pan, 21. 

Paris, France, 175, 176, 177. 

Paris, Matthew, quoted, 169, 172, 178. 

Parliament (par'-ll-ment), 187; pic- 
ture, 186. 

Parthenon (par'-the-non), 23-25, 38 ; 
picture, 22. 

Patricians (pa-trish'-anz), 84. 

Paul, 130, 297. 

Peddlers, 277-278. 

Pericles (per'-i-klez), 59-61 ; quoted, 

5'- 

Persia, war with Greece, 53-59 ; 
Alexander conquers, 62-69 i Mo- 
hammedans conquer, 326. 

Peru, 379. 

Phidias (fid'-i-as), 24, 30. 

Philip of Macedon, 62. 

Philip II, of Spain, 388-390, 392. 

Philippines, 373. 

Phoenicians (f^-nish'-anz), 8, ii, 73, 

354- 
Picts, 181. 
Pigafetta (pe-ga-f et'-ta) , quoted, 371- 

375- 

Pilgrims, 318-322. 

Pindar, quoted, 32, 34. 

Piraeus (pi-re'-?ts), 43-44, 159. 

Pirates, Rome conquers, 97, 98-99 ; 
Vikings, 157-160 ; Angles and Sax- 
ons, 181; medieval, 281. 

Pizarro (pi-zar'-ro), 379. 

Platfea (pld-te'-a), 59. 

Plato (pla'-t5),(7?<o<«Z, 45-46. 

Plebeians (ple-be'-y<mz), 84. 

Plowing, 250, 252. 

Plutarch (pluo'-tark), quoted, 37, 55, 
64-67. 

Plymouth, 413. 



Pnyx (niks), 51. 

Poles, 281. 

Polo, Marco, 347-349, 350. 

Pompey, 98-99, in. 

Ponce de Leon (pon'-tha da la-on'), 

387- 
Pope, crowns Charlemagne, 152; 

struggle with emperors, 164-173; 

ruler of church, 300. 
Portugal, explorers of, 349-360, 361, 

369, 370, 375 ; slave trade of, 382 ; 

loses Eastern empire, 393. 
Poseidon (p6-si'-don), 21 ; picture, 

20. 
Praxiteles (prSk-sit'-S-lez), 28-29. 
Printing, 336-337. 
Privateers, 396. 

Propontis (pr6-p6n'-tis), 3, 16. 
Protestantism ( prot'-es-tant-iz'-m) , 

337-339, 340. 
Provinces, Roman, 114, 1 18-122. 
Ptolemy (tol'-e-mi), 350 ; map, 341. 
Punic wars (pu'-nik), 90-96. 

Quebec, 413. 

Raleigh (ro'-li), 409-410; picture, 

395- 

Renaud (re-no'), 224-227. 

Revolt, Great, 258-262. 

Richard I, 205, 333. 

Roads, Roman, 121, 122-125 ! medie- 
val, 253, 277 ; Chinese, 349. 

Roanoke (ro'-a-nok'), 410. 

Roger of Wendover, quoted, 206-209. 

Rolf the Ganger (gang'-er), 192, 193. 

Romans, 12, 73, 74-139, HO, 141, 
142, 145-148. « 

Romulus, 79. 

Runnymede, 209. 

Russia, 281, 288. 

Saewulf, quoted, 322. 

Sailing directions, 342-343. 

Saint Augustine, Fla., 388, 413, 414. 

Saint Gall (saN gal'), monastery, 

316 ; plan, 315. 
Saint Julian's Bay, 371, 398. 



428 



INDEX 



Saint Lawrence River, 377, 388, 412, 

413- 

Saints, 316-318. 

Salamis (sal'-a-mis), 58-59. 

Santa F^, 413. 

Santa Maria, 363 ; picture, 366. 

Saracens (s3,r'-d-senz), 322-333. 

Saxons, 141, 151, 153, 181-184. 

Schools, Greek, 45-47; Charlemagne's, 
156; monastery, 308, 383. 

Science, Greek, 47-48, 69-70; later, 
406, 408. 

Scythians (sith'-i-anz), 11, 14. 

Senate, Roman, 84, 112, 

Shakespeare, 408. 

Ships, Greek, lo-ii ; Roman, 91, 92 ; 
Viking, 157; picture, 158; Nor- 
man, pictures, 193, 198; medieval, 
280-281 ; picture, 321 ; later, 345- 
346 ; pictures, 366, 371, 374, 403, 405. 

Shops, medieval, 264-265 ; picture, 
266. See also Market-place. 

Sicily (sis'-i-li), 8, 16-17, 9it 9^) 94. 
95, 96, 114, 128, 168, 169, 173, 328. 

Slaves, 16, 113, 354, 381-382. 

Socrates (s6k'-ra-tez), 48-51. 

Spain, Greek settlements and trade, 
8, 12, 17, 43; Carthaginians in, 90, 
92, 93; Rome rules, 96, 114, 120, 
128; Goths conquer, 148; Vikings 
visit, 159; Saracens rule, 326, 328; 
picture, 327 ; explorers of, 363- 
368, 369-377 ; colonies in America, 
379-3855 413. 414 ; enemies of, 385- 
408. 

Sparta, 36-37, 57, 61. 

Spice, 278, 286, 349. 

Squire, 235-236. 

Sweden, 157, 158, 281, 298, 339. 

Syria, 97, 98, 326. 

Tacitus (tS.s'-i-tMS), quoted, 120-121, 

141-144. 
Tarik (ta'-rik), 326. 
Thebes (thebz), 61. 
Themistocles (the-mis'-to-klez), 55- 

56, 57-58. 
Thermopylae (ther-mop'-i-le), 57, 98. 



Thor, 150. 

Thorold, 313. 

Thucydides (thu-sid'-i-dez) , quoted, 

60-61. 
Tortoise (t6r'-tus), 103-105. 
Tournament (toor'-nd-ment), 229- 

230 ; picture, 237. 
Trade, Greek, 12-18, 43; Roman, 

127-128 ; medieval, 277-293 ; later, 

336, 393-394- 
Trading posts, Greek, 12-13 ; Han- 

seatic, 285; Venetian, 290-291. 
Travel, Greek, 3-6 ; Roman, 124-127; 

medieval, 277, 278-279, 312, 318- 

322. 
Triumph, Roman, 86-87, "'i- 
Troubadours (troo'-ba-dobrz), 243-247. 
Turks, 329, 331, 346. 

Vandals, 141. 

Vassal, 214-217, 249-250, 254-256. 

Vellum, 308-310. 

Venice, 290-293. 

Venus, 28 ; picture, 27. 

Verrazano (ver-rat-sa'-no), 377, 385. 

Vespucius (ves-pii'-shMs), 369. 

Vesta (ves'-td), 80. 

Vestals, 80, 82. 

Vikings (vi'-kingz), 157-160, 161, 

182, 190-191, 192. 
Villain, 250-263. • 

Virginia, 409, 410, 413. 

Washington, state of, 399. 

West Indies, Columbus discovers, 

365-367, 369 ; Spaniards in, 380-384. 
William the Conqueror, 192-200. 
William of Malmesbury (mamz'- 

ber-i), quoted, 199-200. 
William of Orange, 390-392. 
Witenagemot (wit'-e-nd-ge-mof), 

187. 
Woden, 150, 185. 

Xenophon (zen'-6-fon), quoted, 49-50. 
Xerxes (zurk'-zez), 55-58. 

Zeus (zQs), 21, 30-31, 40 ; picture, 20. 



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